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Chapman,  j.    wiit^,  1859- 

Evangelistic  sermons 


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Evangelistic  Sermons 

By 

J.  WILBUR  CHAPMAN,  D.  p^^^^  ''"^^i 

S).EPf>8  1923 


Compiled  and  Edited  hy 
EDGAR  WHITAKER  WORK,  D.  D. 


New  York  Chicago 

Fleming  H.   Revell  Company 

London       and       Edinburgh 


CopTright,  1922,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


..^^ 


Printed  in  United  States  of  America, 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:     75     Princes     Street 


EDITOR'S  i:n'teoduction 

V 

EARLY  in  his  ministry  J.  Wilbur  Chap- 
man was  called  to  do  the  work  of  an 
evangelist.  Even  while  he  was  in  the 
actual  pastorate  of  churches,  his  ministry  was 
evangelistic  in  tone  and  method.  When  the  time 
came  he  gave  up  a  pastorate  of  signal  usefulness 
and  power  in  'New  York  City,  and  devoted  his  full 
energy  to  evangelistic  work  in  the  churches.  No 
man  of  his  time  did  more  to  promote  the  aggressive 
preaching  of  the  gospel  of  salvation.  In  his  own 
denomination  he  is  credited,  together  with  John  H. 
Converse,  with  starting  a  movement  for  community 
and  pastoral  evangelism  which  is  not  likely  to 
spend  its  force  in  many  years — a  movement  strong 
enough  in  fact  to  change  to  an  important  degree 
the  very  character  of  a  great  Christian  body.  He 
was  an  intense  lover  of  the  Church,  and  a  staunch 
advocate  of  the  ministry  of  the  Church.  Believing 
so  thoroughly  in  the  divine  origin  and  authority  of 
the  Church,  he  never  threw  stones  into  the  well 
that  gives  water  to  the  world.  That  he  gave  to 
evangelism  so  much  of  spiritual  dignity  and  grace, 
was  due  to  his  own  profound  respect  for  religious 
propriety  as  well  as  to  his  singularly  fine  and  noble 
personality.  It  was  not  in  him  to  do  anything 
otherwise  than  decently  and  in  order.     With  him 


6  EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

the  preaching  of  the  gospel  was  never  trivial :  least 
of  all  could  it  partake  of  anything  clownish.  He 
was  quiet,  both  in  manner  and  speech.  It  was 
never  necessary  for  him  to  shout  to  produce  an 
impression.  If  he  studied  the  art  of  making  im- 
pressions, it  was  nowhere  apparent.  He  was  never 
other  than  a  simple,  quiet,  direct  preacher  of  the 
gospel.  Yet  there  was  a  deep  fervor  in  his  speech 
that  made  itself  felt  in  his  audiences.  He  pro- 
duced an  atmosphere  of  his  own,  and  it  was  one  of 
profound  quiet  and  responsiveness. 

Few  men  in  the  history  of  evangelism  have  been 
more  truly  masters  of  assemblies.  To  speak  of  his 
quiet  manner  does  not  mean  to  say  that  he  lacked 
in  aggressiveness.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  richly 
gifted  in  the  persuasive  ways  of  evangelism.  He 
could  woo  his  audience  by  his  voice,  or  even  by  a 
striking  attitude,  or  a  startling  word.  Many  will 
remember  his  sudden  enunciation  of  such  words — 
as  "  Hear  me !  "  and  "  Listen !  "  He  well  under- 
stood the  latent  dramatic  power  of  the  gospel.  At 
times  he  was  vividly  dramatic.  Often  his  language 
was  picturesque  and  appealing.  He  could  tell  a 
simple  incident  or  story  in  such  a  way  as  to  melt 
strong  men  to  tears.  There  were  occasions  when 
he  burst  into  unnsual  utterance  and  method.  Fre- 
quently he  would  say  to  an  audience  that  he  would 
xifladly  change  his  method,  if  only  he  could  win 
souls.  Like  the  Apostle  Paul,  he  was  willing  him- 
voK  to  become  almost  reprobate  in  sensationalism 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION  7 

if  by  that  means  he  could  persuade  others.  Never- 
theless, the  foundation  of  his  work  was  the  quiet 
persuasiveness  of  a  heart  deeply  in  earnest,  and 
filled  to  overflowing  with  a  passion  for  souls.  It 
was  not  necessary  for  him  to  resort  to  mere  by- 
play. Soul-winning  was  far  too  impressive  a  proc- 
ess to  be  punctuated  with  gales  of  laughter.  No 
one  ever  went  away  from  his  meetings  with  a  mere 
feeling  of  having  been  entertained.  He  meant  that 
every  sermon,  every  prayer,  every  song,  should  re- 
mind men  of  the  Saviour's  call. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  state  some  at  least  of  the  ele- 
ments of  Dr.  Chapman's  power  as  an  evangelistic 
preacher.  He  believed  profoundly  in  the  Word  of 
God,  and  preached  it  fearlessly  to  men.  He  taught 
with  tremendous  realism  the  power  of  sin  and  the 
certainty  of  judgment.  With  equal  passion  he 
preached  the  doctrines  of  grace.  A  man  may  be  a 
great  sinner,  but  he  has  a  great  Saviour.  The  old 
message  of  faith  and  repentance  faithfully  reiter- 
ated brought  many  thousands  to  the  Saviour.  He 
was  careful  to  explain  that  repentance  means  turn- 
ing away  from  sin,  as  well  as  feeling  sorry  for  sin. 
The  doctrinal  background  of  his  preaching  revealed 
his  careful  training  in  theological  truths,  but  it 
was  doctrine  brought  to  the  level  of  common  under- 
standing. One  is  often  amazed  at  the  skill  with 
which  he  teaches  profound  truths  of  religion  in  ut- 
terly simple  fashion. 

His  desire  to  see  men  saved  was  at  the  root  of 


8  EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

his  passionate  preaohing.  He  knew  that  men  were 
lost  without  Christ,  and  he  preached  to  lost  men 
with  the  passion  of  a  true  ambassador  of  God. 
Close  to  this  deep  passion  of  his  heart  for  the  souls 
of  men,  was  his  power  of  pathos.  He  readily  ad- 
mitted that  he  was  emotional,  but  emotionalism 
with  him  was  not  mere  excitement.  What  he  had 
was  depth  of  feeling,  great  tenderness  of  sympathy, 
strong  humanistic  understanding  of  life — in  one 
word,  pathos.  The  word  does  not  necessarily  mean 
tears;  certainly  it  does  not  mean  loose  and  irre- 
sponsible utterance.  In  Chapman's  case  it  was  ac- 
companied by  a  voice  of  extraordinary  quality.  It 
was  musical,  yet  it  was  more  than  musical.  It  was 
sympathetic,  yet  even  this  does  not  express  all  that 
it  was.  There  was  a  wooing  note  about  it,  a  pro- 
found tenderness  of  feeling,  an  echoing  persuasive- 
ness, such  as  are  found  in  but  few  human  voices. 
He  could  hush  an  audience  into  deep  stillness  with 
•a  word.  Without  striving  for  effect,  he  could  speak 
single  words  so  that  one  would  remember  them. 
His  pronunciation  of  the  Master's  name — "  Jesus  " 
— ^was  always  deeply  impressive. 

The  unusual  richness  of  his  voice,  together  with 
his  vivid  imagination,  and  his  intimate  apprecia- 
tion of  humanity's  varied  life,  gave  him  remark- 
able power  in  reciting  incidents,  stories  and  experi- 
ences that  were  related  to  his  themes.  From  a  wide 
knowledge  of  men  he  gathered  many  narratives  of 
life  which  he  used  with  telling  power  in  his  ser- 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION  9 

mons.  In  this  art  of  sermonic  narrative,  indeed,  he 
has  had  few  equals.  Whether  he  turned  to  the 
scenes  and  persons  of  the  Scripture,  or  to  the  ex- 
periences of  every-day  life,  he  made  his  hearers 
understand  the  realism  of  the  gospel  he  preached. 
Thus  his  preaching  came  to  have  personal  and 
tangible  values,  that  remained  in  men's  hearts. 

Not  the  least  of  the  elements  of  his  power  was 
his  reliance  upon  prayer  and  the  profound  effect 
of  the  Holy  Spirit's  direct  ministry  with  souls.  It 
was  scarcely  possible  to  hear  him  preach  on  his 
favorite  subjects  of  sin,  repentance,  faith,  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  love  of  God,  the  saving  power  of  Christ 
and  the  cross,  the  return  of  the  Lord  in  glory,  with- 
out hearing  the  echo  of  spiritual  voices  from  afar. 

It  is  remarkable  that  a  man,  who  was  naturally 
timid  and  shrinking  in  his  own  nature,  who  loved 
quiet  and  privacy  rather  than  the  murmur  of  great 
assemblies,  should  have  been  so  powerfully  used  of 
God  with  the  multitude.  His  evangelistic  ministry 
carried  him  to  almost  every  corner  of  his  own  land. 
His  work  extended  also  to  Canada.  Calls  came  to 
him  again  and  again  from  lands  over  the  sea.  He 
preached  the  gospel  in  England,  Scotland,  Ireland, 
and  Wales,  in  Australia,  New  Zealand  and  Tas- 
mania, in  the  Philippine  and  Fiji  islands,  in 
Japan,  in  China,  in  Korea,  in  Ceylon.  Every- 
where the  simplicity  and  fervor  of  his  message 
gained  for  him  wide  and  sympathetic  hearing.  In 
Australia,  where  he  carried  on  evangelistic  work 


10  EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

twice,  the  results  of  his  preaching  were  beyond 
calculation.  Certain  of  Dr.  Chapman's  sermons 
have  had,  through  frequent  repetition,  almost  a 
world-wide  hearing. 

The  sermons  included  in  this  volume  were 
preached  in  1916,  a  little  more  than  two  years  be- 
fore his  death,  which  occurred  in  New  York  on 
Christmas  day,  1918.  They  represent  the  full 
maturity  of  his  experience,  as  well  as  the  full 
measure  of  his  power.  They  are  reproduced  here 
from  stenographic  reports  made  at  the  time  of  their 
delivery.  The  editor  has  done  his  utmost  to  pre- 
serve the  form  and  manner  of  the  evangelist's 
speech,  as  well  as  the  incidents  and  atmosphere  of 
the  meetings  as  they  were  conducted  by  Dr.  Chap- 
man and  the  master  of  song,  Charles  M.  Alexander. 
The  sermons  are  thus  to  be  read  here  in  their 
spoken  form.  The  action  of  the  preacher  may  b© 
seen,  and  the  presence  of  the  great  audience  is  often 
distinctly  felt. 

With  the  hope  that  the  sermons  of  our  own  great 
American  evangelist  may  help  to  deepen  the  life  of 
many  ministers,  leaders,  and  churches  in  our  own 
and  other  lands,  the  editor,  grateful  for  the  privi- 
lege of  preparing  them  for  publication,  sends  them 
out  to  the  Church  at  large. 

Edgar  Whitakeb  Woek. 
Fourth  Presbyterian  Church.  New  York. 


Contents 


CHAPTBB 
I. 

The  Master  Is  Come     . 
John  11:28 

PAGE 

.     13 

II. 

Chased  Out  op  the  World  . 
Job  18: 18 

.     25 

ni. 

Eternity 

Isaiah  57 :  15 

.     36 

IV. 

Sowing  and  Reaping 

Galatians  6 : 7 

.     48 

V. 

"  Where  Is  Abel  Thy  Brother?  " 
Genesis  4 : 9 

.     58 

VI. 

The  Accepted  Time 
II  Cor.  6:2 

.     69 

VII. 

"  Prepare  to  Meet  Thy  God  "    . 

Amos  4 :  12 

.     82 

VIII. 

Losing  and  Finding  Jesus    . 
Luke  2 :  46 

.     93 

IX. 

Three  Great  Things     . 
//  Sam.  12  :  13 

.  105 

X, 

VoTTR  Sins 

Isaiah  59 : 2 

.   113 

XI. 

What  Men  Do  With  Their  Sins 

.   126 

Prov.5:22 
11 


12 

CONTENTS 

XII. 

"What  Wilt  Thou  Sat?''    .      . 
Jeremiah  13: 21 

PAGB 

.  138 

XIII. 

A  Neglected  Tkuth 
John  3  : 7 

.  148 

XIV. 

''Is  It  Nothing  To  You?"     . 

Lam,  1 :  12 

.  158 

XV. 

The  Precious  Blood  of  Christ  . 
I  Peter  1 :  19 

.  168 

XVI. 

A  Forsaken  Leader 

//  Tim.  4  :  10 

.  179 

XVII. 

The  Prodigal 

Luke  15 :  14 

.  194 

XVIII. 

Going  Home 

Luke  15: 22 

.  206 

A  facsimile  of  Dr.  Chapman's  sermon  notes, 
showing  the  outline  of  the  last  sermon  he  preached^ 
Dec.  IS,  IQ18,  ten  days  before  his  death. 


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The  very  diraness  of  my  sight 

Makes  me  secure ; 
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I  feel  His  hand— I  hear  Him  say, 

"My  help  is  sure." 


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THE  MASTER  IS  COME 

MY  text  is  in  John  11:28— "The  Master 
is  come  and  calleth  for  thee."  This 
passage  takes  ns  to  the  home  in 
Bethany  where  Jesus  loved  to  be.  It  has  to  do 
with  the  sickness  and  death  of  Lazarus,  and  his 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  Some  years  ago  I 
heard  a  distinguished  man  of  God  preach  from  this 
text.  The  light  of  heaven  was  on  his  face  and  the 
fire  of  heaven  was  in  his  message.  The  outline  of 
his  sermon  remains  with  me  still,  and  I  am  going 
to  use  his  outline  as  I  preach  to  you  from  this  text. 

It  must  have  been  a  very  remarkable  family  that 
lived  in  the  Bethany  home.  Martha  and  Mary  and 
Lazarus.  It  may  not  have  been  the  largest  house 
in  Bethany,  nevertheless  Jesus  loved  to  tarry  there. 
If  you  tell  me  that  you  have  the  finest  home  in  this 
city  and  Jesus  is  not  there,  then  it  is  not  the  finest. 
If  you  tell  me  that  yours  is  a  home  of  poverty  and 
Jesus  abides  with  you,  then  I  know  that  you  do  not 
mind  your  poverty. 

1^0  one  can  think  of  the  Bethany  home  without 
being  deeply  touched.  Martha  and  Mary  and 
Lazarus  and — Jesus!  One  day  there  came  a  cloud, 
the  size  of  a  man's  hand,  over  that  home  in  Bethany. 

13 


14  THE  MASTER  IS  OOME 

Lazarus  was  sick.  The  cloud  increased  from  day 
to  day  until  it  covered  all  the  sky.  When  the  sis- 
ters knew  that  their  brother  was  sick  unto  death, 
they  called  a  messenger  and  sent  a  message  to  Jesus. 
They  did  not  say,  "  Go  to  the  Master  and  tell  Him 
that  Lazarus  is  ill,"  hut  they  said  this,  "  Lord,  be- 
hold, he  whom  Thou  lovest  is  sick."  They  knew 
that  Jesus  would  know.  How  they  watched  for  the 
return  of  the  messenger,  but  the  messenger  delayed 
and  Lazarus  died.  In  those  countries  the  prepara- 
tions for  death  must  be  made  very  quickly.  So 
they  laid  Lazarus  at  once  in  the  tomb.  When  they 
went  back  to  the  home  everything  spoke  of  him. 
The  old  couch  on  which  he  rested,  the  manuscripts 
he  read,  the  sandals  he  wore,  the  robe  that  was 
wrapped  around  him, — everything  spoke  of  Laza- 
rus, and  Lazarus  was  gone.  Just  when  their  hearts 
were  aching  to  the  breaking,  a  messenger  came 
saying  that  Jesus  was  coming  to  Bethany.  Mary 
sat  still  in  the  house,  but  Martha  went  out  to  meet 
him,  and  when  she  met  him  she  began  in  a  tone  of 
complaint,  "  Lord,  if  thou  hadst  been  here,  my 
brother  had  not  died."  It  was  then  that  Jesus 
spoke  his  wonderful  words :  "  I  am  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life.  He  that  believeth  in  me,  though 
he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live."  Something  in  what 
he  said  and  in  the  way  he  said  it  touched  Martha's 
heart,  and  she  rushed  back  to  her  sister  and  cried 
out  in  the  words  of  the  text,  "  The  Master  is  come 
and  calleth  for  thee."     Then  the  sisters  went  out 


THE  MASTER  IS  COME  15 

together  to  meet  Jesus.  Presently  they  were  stand- 
ing at  the  tomb  and  weeping.  Jesus  was  weeping 
too.  Then  He  stooped  down  to  look  into  the  tomb 
from  which  the  stone  had  been  rolled  away,  and 
cried  out  to  the  dead  man,  "  Come  forth."  I 
scarcely  need  to  rehearse  the  story  to  you  because 
it  is  so  familiar.  And  now  I  follow  the  outline  that 
I  have  mentioned,  and  in  so  doing  we  shall  find 
suggested  in  this  story  the  steps  that  are  essential 
to  a  revival. 

First,  when  Mary  and  Martha  wanted  Jesus  they  ,  *• 
did  not  go  themselves  to  Jesus,  but  they  sent  a  mes- 
senger. I  have  always  had  an  idea  that  if  they  had 
gone  themselves,  saying,  "  Master,  Lazarus  is  sick, 
and  if  he  dies  our  hearts  will  be  broken  and  our 
home  desolate,"  perhaps  Jesus  might  have  come 
back  to  Bethany  with  them  at  once  and  stayed 
the  disease.  They  did  not  go  themselves.  They^ 
sent  a  messenger.  And  do  you  know  that  this  is 
the  way  people  expect  revivals  nowadays?  They 
are  anxious  to  have  them  come,  but  they  do  not  put 
themselves  into  the  work.  They  send  someone  else. 
In  earlier  days  when  people  desired  a  revival,  they 
waited  upon  God  in  fasting  and  prayer.  They  even  *^ 
spent  nights  in  prayer.  They  forgot  to  eat  and 
sleep.  Fathers  and  mothers  became  concerned  for 
their  children.  Wives  were  in  agony  about  their 
husbands.  Ministers  stood  up  to  preach  and  they 
looked  like  dead  men.  Often  they  preached  to  the 
accompaniment  of  sobs.     When  men  and  women 


16  THE  MASTER  IS  COME 

sought  God  for  themselves  in  this  spirit  the  founda- 
tions were  shaken,  the  heavens  were  opened, 
churches  were  quickened,  and  souls  were  converted. 

I  believe  in  the  work  of  the  evangelist  with  all 
my  heart.  I  keep  before  me  two  or  three  ideals. 
My  greatest  inspiration  is  Dwight  L.  Moody.  Al- 
most all  that  I  know  of  evangelistic  work  I  learned 
at  his  feet.  I  continue  to  use  his  methods.  I  have 
prayed  God  through  all  the  years  that  I  might  have 
his  spirit  in  preachiug.  I  came  in  touch  with  him 
first  when  I  was  a  university  student.  Later  I  sat 
at  his  feet  as  a  young  minister.  I  entered  evangel- 
istic work  under  his  direction.  I  used  to  take  his 
after  meetings  when  he  was  unable  to  take  them 
after  preaching.  Yet  much  as  I  believe  in  evan- 
gelists, there  is  not  an  evangelist  in  the  world  who 
has  the  power  to  bring  a  revival  to  your  soul.  You 
can  have  it  only  by  seeking  after  God  for  yourself. 
We  have  praying  ministers  here  and  splendid  com- 
mittees at  work,  yet  the  revival  tarries  and  men  are 
not  saved.  People  are  not  asking  with  sobs: 
"  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  Thus  far  I  have 
received  just  two  letters  from  people  who  were 
concerned  for  their  children.  Let  us  not  make  the 
mistake  of  the  sisters  in  Bethany,  who  did  not  go 
themselves  to  seek  after  Christ,  but  sent  a  messen- 
ger instead. 

Something  else  is  to  be  noted.  Only  one  of  them 
went  after  all.  Martha  went,  but  Mary  stayed  in 
the  house.     This  is  the  way  revivals  b^n.     No 


THE  MASTER  IS  COME  17 

man  has  ever  known  of  a  whole  community  being 
roused  at  once.  No  minister  can  tell  of  a  whole 
church  being  on  fire  at  one  time.  One  will  be  in- 
terested and  will  go  forth  to  meet  Christ  like 
Martha.  This  city  will  never  be  moved  by  masses 
of  people  who  are  interested  in  revival  !N"o,  it  will 
begin  with  individuals.  Some  minister  will  have  a 
deep  concern.  He  cannot  eat  or  sleep.  He  feels 
as  if  he  would  die.  He  sits  at  his  desk  with  tears 
running  down  his  cheeks.  Or  some  old  saint  of 
God  will  cry  out,  saying :  "  Oh,  Lord,  revive  Thy 
work !  Revive  Thy  work !  "  When  the  revival  of 
'57  swept  through  New  York,  it  was  traced  to  one 
man  who  spent  days  on  his  knees  alone  with  no- 
body to  pray  with  him.  Then  another  came,  and 
another,  and  another,  until  there  was  a  whole  com- 
pany of  praying  people.  New  York  was  stirred. 
Philadelphia  was  shaken.  Chicago  was  moved.  The 
whole  American  continent  was  stirred.  The  revival 
swept  across  the  sea  to  Great  Britain.  It  started 
with  one  man  on  his  knees.  There  may  be  some 
man  in  this  audience  now  who  feels  that  his  life 
has  never  counted  much  for  God.  To-night  he 
feels  that  he  will  lay  hold  of  God  and  never  let  go. 
This  is  the  way  revival  begins,  with  one  soul  that 
is  truly  seeking  God. 

When  I  began  my  ministry  in  Philadelphia,  I 
succeeded  Dr.  Arthur  T.  Pierson.  It  was  a  peril- 
ous thing  for  a  young  man  to  do.  Mr.  Moody  told 
me  that  if  we  could  have  a  revival,  everything 


--\ 


18  THE  MASTER  IS  COME 

would  go  well.  I  stood  up  before  the  people  and 
said :  "  All  the  people  who  are  willing  to  help  me, 
come  and  tell  me  what  you  will  do."  A  famous 
merchant  was  my  chief  elder,  and  he  said  that  I 
could  have  his  carriage  to  make  pastoral  calls.  An- 
other said  that  he  would  pay  the  expenses  of  the 
advertising.  Others  came  and  said  that  they  would 
do  this  and  that.  Finally,  down  the  central  aisle 
of  the  church  came  an  old  Scotch  woman,  Mrs. 
Thompson.  She  took  my  hand,  and,  looking  at  me, 
said :  "  Do  you  mind  the  little  room  at  the  head  of 
the  stairway  in  my  house  ? "  I  said,  "  Yes,  Mrs. 
Thompson."  "  Very  well,  minister,"  she  said, 
"  every  day  at  twelve  o'clock  I  will  he  in  that  little 
room.  I  will  be  on  my  knees,  and  I  will  never  let 
go  of  God  for  you."  In  a  short  time  I  stood  in  my 
pulpit  there  and  received  four  hundred  and  forty- 
four  people.  Of  these,  sixteen  came  as  a  direct 
result  of  the  personal  influence  of  this  old  Scotch 
woman.  If  there  is  one  thing  that  we  need  more 
than  anything  else  just  now,  it  is  an  overmastering 
concern  for  people  who  are  out  of  Christ. 

Martha  was  not  fit  to  talk  to  Mary  until  she  had 
seen  Jesus.  At  least,  she  had  no  influence.  Mary- 
said  :  "  You  might  as  well  go  and  meet  Him  and 
talk  to  Him."  Mary  herself  sat  still  in  the  house. 
You  know  what  that  means.  Teeth  set  together, 
lips  closed.  Martha  talks  and  talks,  but  Mary  will 
not  move.  Finally  Martha  went  out  to  meet  Jesus. 
The  moment  she  caught  the  look  on  His  face  and 


THE  MASTER  IS  COME  19 

heard  the  ring  of  His  voice,  she  rushed  back  with 
a  new  light  in  her  eyes,  a  new  sound  in  her  voice, 
a  new  power  in  her  testimony,  saying,  "  The  Mas- 
ter is  come."  When  she  saw  Jesus,  she  could  talk 
to  Mary  as  she  had  not  done  before.  You  want  a 
revival,  you  will  have  to  see  Jesus  first.  Many  of 
us  want  to  see  this  city  moved  for  God.  We  must 
be  alone  with  him  first.  Oh,  my  God,  send  a  re- 
vival !    We  beseech  thee,  send  a  revival. 

I  was  preaching  in  Lincoln,  JN'ebraska,  when  I 
heard  a  woman  say  to  her  pastor:  "  I  want  you  to 
pray  for  my  husband  and  two  boys."  I  was 
shocked  when  he  said,  "  I  shall  not  do  it."  When 
I  asked  him  about  it  he  said :  "  She  is  the  most 
worldly  woman  in  this  city.  She  has  led  her  hus- 
band and  two  boys  into  the  world  after  her.  It 
would  be  absolutely  useless  for  me  to  pray  so  long 
as  she  professes  to  be  a  Christian  and  is  not." 
This  woman  went  to  her  home  and  said  to  her  hus- 
band :  "I  want  you  to  forgive  me.  I  have  been  a 
church  member,  but  a  false  one.  I  have  been  a 
professed  follower  of  Christ,  but  I  have  denied 
Him.  I  want  you  to  forgive  me."  I  saw  her  hus- 
band converted,  and  the  two  boys  came  with  their 
father.  That  man  is  to-day  an  elder  of  a  church 
in  his  city. 

A  woman  came  to  her  minister  in  Springfield, 
Ohio,  and  said :  "  Pray  for  my  boy."  The  min- 
ister said :  "  Absolutely  useless."  He  told  her  to 
go  back  and  get  her  boy.    I  had  a  letter  from  her 


20  THE  MASTER  IS  COME 

in  which  she  told  me  the  circumstances.  *^  Mj  boy 
came  from  the  Central  Methodist  Church,  where 
Bishop  Bashford  was  preaching.  He  said  to  me: 
'  I  am  about  persuaded  to  be  a  Christian.  If  you 
will  go  with  me  to-morrow  I  will  settle  it.' "  His 
mother  said  to  him :  "  I  cannot  go,  I  have  an  en- 
gagement." Writing  to  me,  she  said :  "  To  my 
shame,  I  confess  that  my  engagement  was  at  a  card 
party.  I  kept  the  engagement  and  my  boy  never 
went  back  to  the  Church.  I  wrote  to  him  like  this : 
^  Dear  Son, — Your  mother's  heart  is  broken.  When 
you  were  a  little  boy,  and  your  father  insisted  that 
I  should  have  you  sleep  alone,  I  put  you  in  the 
cradle  and  you  cried  yourself  to  sleep.  When  I 
woke  I  saw  your  arms  stretched  out  towards  me. 
!N'ow,  my  boy,  it  is  your  mother,  with  her  face  tear- 
stained,  who  is  stretching  out  her  arms  for  you. 
Please  come.'  "  I  saw  the  minister  teu  years  after- 
-4  wards  and  asked  him  about  it,  and  he  said  that  the 
boy  had  never  come  to  Christ.  He  was  absolutely 
unmoved.  Some  of  us  in  this  city  might  speak  and 
have  no  power.  Might  preach  and  plead  and  fail. 
We  must  get  right  with  God.  To  your  knees !  To 
your  knees ! 

When  they  reached  the  tomb,  Mary  and  Martha 
and  Jesus,  the  sisters  were  weeping.  Almost  the 
sweetest  words  I  know  are  these :  "  Jesus  wept." 
Tell  me  this.  Did  you  ever  know  a  revival  that  did 
not  begin  with  a  baptism  of  tears?  Tell  me,  did 
you  ever  have  a  revival  by  just  appointing  commit- 


THE  MASTER  IS  COME  21 

tees,  organizing  a  choir,  and  putting  money  into  the 
treasury?  !N'o!  I  will  tell  you  when  revivals 
come.  They  come  when  men  begin  to  say  to  their 
ministers:  Pas^tor,  will  you  pray  for  my  fam- 
ily? When  mothers  come  to  the  evangelist  and 
say:  Pray  for  my  boy.  When  wives  are  so 
deeply  interested  that  they  say:  If  my  husband 
does  not  come,  I  shall  die.  When  signs  like  these 
appear,  then  make  ready.  I  remember  an  experi- 
ence in  the  village  church  in  ISTew  York,  where  I 
was  a  pastor  in  my  early  ministry.  I  had  been 
preaching  for  a  long  time,  but  there  was  no  yield- 
ing of  hearts.  I  called  my  officers  together  and 
asked  them  to  tell  me  what  was  wrong.  They  could 
not  answer  me.  There  was  an  old  farmer  in  the 
congregation  whose  name  was  Herman  Kramer. 
He  could  not  pray  in  public,  nor  could  he  sing  or 
speak.  On  the  next  morning  after  I  had  talked  to 
the  officers,  he  hitched  up  his  horse  to  the  cutter. 
A  snow-storm  had  come  in  the  night,  and  the  fences 
were  covered.  This  man  of  seventy  years  of  age 
got  into  his  sleigh  and  drove  four  miles  across  the 
fields  and  fences  until  he  came  to  a  blacksmith 
shop.  Hitching  his  horse  on  the  outside,  he  went 
in  to  where  the  young  blacksmith  was  hammering 
away  on  his  anvil.  The  blacksmith  looked  up  and 
said :  "  Mr.  Kramer,  what  in  the  world  brought 
you  here  ?  "  All  he  could  do  was  to  catch  hold  of 
the  blacksmith's  bench  with  one  hand  to  steady 
himself    from    falling.      Reaching    out   his    other 


22  THE  MASTER  IS  COME 

hand,  he  said:  "Your  father  and  I  were  friends 
from  boyhood.  When  he  died  I  promised  him  that 
I  would  look  after  you  and  try  to  lead  you  to 
Christ.  I  have  never  spoken  to  you  about  your 
soul.  Oh,  Tom !  "  That  was  all  he  said,  and  he 
turned  back  home.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
blacksmith  came  to  the  meetings,  driving  through 

--4  a  blinding  snow-storm.  When  he  gave  his  testi- 
mony, he  said :  "  I  have  never  been  moved  by  a  ser- 
mon in  my  life,  but  when  Herman  Kramer  stood 
there  sobbing  in  my  shop,  I  said  to  myself,  it  is 
about  time  Tom  Funston  was  in  earnest  himself." 
Revivals  come  with  tears. 

When  Jesus  stood  by  the  grave,  I  can  hear  Him 
saying:  "Take  ye  away  the  stone."  He  could 
have  done  it  Himself,  but  the  Master  will  not  do 
what  you  must  do  yourself.  His  word  to  us  to- 
night is :  "  Take  away  the  stone."  I  am  speaking 
to  you  all  in  a  kindly  spirit,  but  I  testify  to  you 
that  there  will  never  be  a  revival  until  many  of  us 
take  away  the  stones  that  are  in  the  way.  Some 
man  has  not  spoken  to  his  boy  about  Christ.    Some- 

"^  one  who  calls  himself  a  Christian  has  never  said  a 
word  to  any  of  his  employees.  Talk  about  the  diffi- 
culties between  capital  and  labor — I  believe  there 
would  be  no  such  thing  if  the  spirit  of  Jesus  con- 
trolled both  sides. 

Take  away  the  stone.  When  they  took  away  the 
stone  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  can  you  not  see  Him  ? 
Hallelujah !    What  a  Saviour!    I  can  shut  my  eyes 


THE  MASTER  IS  COME  23 

and  see  Him  as  He  stooped  down  and  looked  into 
the  tomb.  I  can  hear  Him  say :  "  Lazarus,  come 
forth."  Mr.  Moody  once  said  that  He  called  him 
by  name  because  if  He  had  said,  "  Come  forth," . 
everybody  who  was  dead  would  have  heard  Him 
and  gotten  up  ahead  of  time.  So  He  said :  "  Laz- 
arus, come  forth."  Your  boy  might  be  saved  to- 
night. Your  girl,  your  husband,  if  you  would  take 
away  the  stone.  Oh,  if  we  would  begin  to  do  this, 
there  would  not  be  an  indifferent  Christian  left  in 
this  city.  The  floodgates  would  be  opened  and 
Ood's  power  would  pour  forth.  Now,  my  friends, 
I  have  preached  my  sermon.  I  have  nothing  else 
to  say,  except  that  my  heart  aches  and  my  soul 
longs  to  see  the  power  of  God  manifested  here. 
Frequently,  in  Australia,  when  Mr.  Alexander  led 
the  choir  in  a  song  called  "  Someone's  Denying  the 
Master  To-night,"  it  was  hardly  necessary  for  me 
to  preach.  I  saw  eight  hundred  men  one  night 
pressing  their  way  into  the  inquiry  room  and  drop- 
ping on  their  knees  to  say:  "  I  yield."  I  saw  them 
rising  up  and  singing :  "  He  breaks  the  power  of 
cancelled  sin.  He  sets  the  prisoner  free." 

Let  me  say  the  text  over  again:  "The  Master 
is  come,  and  calleth  for  thee."  There  can  be  no 
doubt  about  it.  Maybe  you  are  a  Christian,  and 
maybe  you  are  not.  Let  us  get  right  with  God 
now.    Let  us  open  our  hearts  to  His  Spirit. 

Blessed  God,  our  Father,  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Saviour,  we  pray  that  the  Spirit  may 


24  THE  MASTER  IS  COME 

search  us  to-night.  We  praj  that  everything  that 
is  wrong  may  be  taken  away  from  us.  Let  the 
Holy  Ghost  come  like  a  fire  upon  us.  Oh,  our 
God,  if  there  is  anything  in  our  lives  that  stands 
in  the  way,  take  it  from  us.  Oh,  God,  do  not  let 
us  drift  from  Thee.  Bo  not  let  us  be  a  barrier  in 
the  way  of  others.  In  Jesus^  precious  Name. 
Amen! 


n 

'       CHASED  OUT  OF  THE  WORLD 

HERE  is  a  striking  Old  Testament  text — ■ 
Job  18:18:  ''He  shall  be  driven  from 
light  into  darkness  and  chased  out  of  the 
world."  This  eighteenth  chapter  of  Job  is  a  de- 
scription of  a  sinner,  and  the  eighteenth  verse  is 
the  climax  of  the  story.  The  man  who  has  resisted 
God  has  come  to  the  end.  There  could  hardly  be 
a  better  description  than  this :  "  He  shall  be  driven 
from  light  into  darkness  and  chased  out  of  the 
world."  A  remarkable  text  found  in  a  remarkable 
book.  I  have  been  praying  God  that  the  results  of 
this  service  may  also  be  remarkable. 

The  driver  is  Satan,  and  the  one  driven  is  a 
human  soul.  Let  me  give  you  the  text  once  more, 
for  if  you  forget  every  word  of  my  sermon  and  sim- 
ply remember  the  text,  you  will  do  well :  "  He 
shall  be  driven  from  light  into  darkness  and  chased 
out  of  the  world."  This  is  not  the  way  the  evil  one 
begins.  He  begins  by  wooing.  He  starts  with 
fascination.  He  never  comes  at  once  with  hoofs 
of  iron,  and  a  tail.  He  comes  in  the  most  sooth- 
ing way  possible.  He  allures  in  every  way,  but 
when  the  end  comes,  my  text  is  the  description  of 
his  last  lash.  From  light  into  darkness  and 
chased  out  of  the  world. 

25 


26  CHASED  OUT  OF  THE  WORLD 

I  do  not  believe  that  men  and  women  would  start 
in  the  ways  of  sin  if  they  could  see  the  end  from 
the  beginning.  'Not  a  great  while  ago  a  young 
woman  in  E'ewark,  New  Jersey,  graduated  from 
one  of  our  great  institutions.  She  was  the  child 
of  honoured  parents.  Her  father  was  a  man  of 
wealth  and  position.  She  began  a  life  of  sin  in  col- 
lege. It  started  with  an  innocent  game  of  cards 
and  an  occasional  taste  of  wine.  Before  she 
reached  the  end  of  her  college  career  she  was  dis- 
graced and  dishonoured.  Within  a  short  time  after 
she  left  college  the  girl,  who  would  naturally  have 
taken  the  honours  of  her  class,  was  seated  in  a  hovel 
where  sin  had  driven  her,  within  three  blocks  of 
her  father's  mansion.  Feeling  that  the  end  had 
come,  she  put  a  revolver  to  her  temple  and  went 
speeding  into  the  presence  of  God.  I  know  that  no 
girl  in  this  city  would  start  in  sin  if  she  saw  the 
end. 

My  great  alarm  about  sin  is  this — that  we  begin 
in  such  small  ways.  You  have  a  temper  and  you 
do  not  curb  it.  You  have  a  passion  and  you  do  not 
bind  it.  You  have  a  disposition  to  say  unkind 
words,  or  to  take  things  that  do  not  belong  to  you. 
You  take  the  name  of  God  in  vain.  You  look  at 
a  picture  that  is  not  pure.  You  hear  a  tale  that  is 
not  clean.  I  am  alarmed,  because  in  that  way  men 
and  women  start  in  the  way  of  sin.  When  they 
reach  the  end,  my  text  is  a  true  description. 

Mr.    Alexander   and   I   were  crossing  the   Tay 


CHASED  OUT  OF  THE  WORLD  27 

river  in  Scotland  a  little  while  ago.  We  went  over 
on  the  new  bridge.  It  is  a  marvel  of  mechanical 
skill.  Just  as  we  had  fairly  gotten  on  the  bridge, 
looking  ont  of  a  window  on  the  right  I  saw  some 
great  iron  girders  rising  out  of  the  river.  The 
guard  on  the  train  said  to  me :  "  That  is  the  wreck 
of  the  old  Tay  bridge."  I  recalled  the  incident. 
When  that  old  bridge  was  completed  everybody 
said  that  it  was  perfect.  But  one  night,  while  an 
express  was  thundering  across,  suddenly  the  whole 
bridge  shivered  and  went  down.  Scores  of  people 
were  killed,  and  many  were  seriously  injured. 
When  the  Government  made  a  careful  study,  they 
found  that  there  was  just  one  blister  in  the  iron 
of  one  of  the  girders.  It  had  been  overlooked,  but 
it  was  enough  to  weaken  the  girder.  So  the  Tay 
bridge  went  down  with  a  crash.  One  little  place 
of  weakness  may  be  enough.  I  say  again  to-night 
that  I  am  concerned  because  sin  starts  in  such 
small  ways.  It  seems  such  an  insignificant  thing 
to  do  some  little  doubtful  act,  but  the  first  thing 
you  know  you  have  taken  the  next  step.  There  are 
some  of  our  social  customs  that  look  innocent,  but 
in  some  cases  they  lead  to  gambling.  I  know  what 
I  am  talking  about  to-night  when  I  say  that  it  is 
easier  to  save  a  drunkard  or  a  libertine  than  to  save 
a  gambler.  When  a  man  has  a  passion  for  gam- 
bling it  burns  like  a  fever  in  his  veins.  I  have  had 
men  stand  before  me  and  say  that  they  would  cut 
off  their  right  hands  and  pluck  out  one  of  their 


28  CHASED  OUT  OF  THE  WORLD 

eyes,  if  they  could  but  undo  tlie  harm  that  had 
been  done  to  them  through  gambling.  Watch 
against  the  beginnings  of  sin. 

Let  me  give  you  a  picture  of  the  text.  We  are 
in  darkness  by  nature.  I  know  that  this  is  an  old- 
fashioned  thing  to  say.  Some  people  tell  us  that  if 
Adam  ever  existed  at  all,  he  never  fell,  and  that 
if  he  fell  he  fell  upward.  But  this  is  not  true; 
We  know  perfectly  well  that  everybody  since  Adam 
has  come  into  the  world  with  a  twist  in  his  nature. 
We  are  by  nature  in  darkness.  We  are  bound  by 
J,  sin.  If  you  do  not  think  you  are  a  slave  to  sin, 
try  to  give  your  sin  up.  A  man  staggered  up  to 
this  platform  the  other  night,  tears  running  down 
his  cheeks,  and  when  I  put  my  arm  around  his 
shoulder,  he  sobbed  as  if  his  heart  would  break. 
"  You  are  going  to  turn  to  Christ  ?  "  I  asked  him. 
"  My  God !  "  he  replied,  "  If  I  only  could.  If  I 
only  could."  Sin  is  slavery.  ISTot  only  so,  but  we 
read  in  Ood's  Word  that  we  are  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins. 

What  is  the  cure?  Some  people  say  that  all  a 
man  needs  to  be  delivered  from  sin,  is  better  sani- 
tary conditions,  better  environment,  better  moral 
-  surroundings.  This  cannot  be  true.  And  the  rea- 
son is  plain.  The  trouble  is  on  the  inside  of  your 
life.  Sin  is  there,  and  being  there  it  binds  you 
and  blinds  you.     It  makes  you  quite  helpless. 

But  there  is  a  way  of  escape.  I  do  not  think 
that  I  have  told  you  of  the  day  when  we  were  sum- 


CHASED  GUI?  OE  THE  WORLD  29 

moned  bj  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Sydney,  in  Australia, 
to  hold  our  services,  which  were  scheduled  for  the 
afternoan,  at  noon-time.  The  Lord  Mayor  sent 
word  that  the  mounted  police  would  clear  the 
streets  unless  we  came  at  once.  The  building  was 
opened.  The  crowd  was  pushed  in  by  the  police- 
men and  twenty  pickpockets,  who  had  been  follow- 
ing us  around,  were  shoved  in  at  the  same  time. 
One  of  these  men  heard  a  sermon  for  the  first  time 
in  fourteen  years.  He  was  impressed.  When  I 
came  out  of  the  service  a  letter  was  placed  in  my 
hands  which  read  like  this :  "  Please  pray  for  me, 
for  I  am  an  outcast,  a  pickpocket,  and  utterly  hope- 
less." I  found  that  man  and  took  him  to  my  room. 
He  got  down  on  his  knees.  I  heard  him  cry  to  God 
for  deliverance.  He  told  me  that  he  had  been  in 
prison  fourteen  times.  If  he  went  again,  it  would 
be  for  life.  I  saw  him  converted,  there  in  my  own 
room.  Before  his  conversion  his  eyes  were  close- 
set,  his  brow  low  and  unshapely,  his  fingers  long 
and  tapering.  He  would  approach  you  like  a  sneak 
thief.  After  conversion  the  very  shape  of  his  face 
seemed  to  change.  His  eyes  seemed  to  widen.  His 
fingers  looked  different.  When  we  crossed  the  sea 
he  came  to  America  with  us.  He  began  to  study 
in  a  Bible  School.  He  took  every  prize.  One  day 
he  came  to  me,  saying :  "  I  think  I  have  a  call  to 
preach."  I  said :  "  If  you  have,  I  will  do  every- 
thing to  help  you  that  I  can."  lie  entered  the 
Theological  Seminary.     Two  years  later  the  Presi- 


30    CHASED  OUT  OF  THE  WORLD 

dent  wrote  to  me :  "Of  all  the  men  we  have  here 
your  man  is  the  leader  in  spiritual  power.  He  is 
the  greatest  of  them  all."  He  graduated  with 
honor.  Five  years  from  the  time  he  staggered  into 
our  meeting  a  pickpocket,  a  thief,  five  years  to  the 
very  day,  he  was  seated  in  a  church  as  an  ordained 
minister,  celebrating  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  To-day  he  is  pastor  of  a  church  in  this 
country,  and  a  magnificent  pastor.  If  sin  is  bond- 
age and  darkness  and  death,  there  is  a  way  of  es- 
cape, and  that  is  for  the  sinner  to  cry  out,  "  God, 
be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner." 

It  is  wonderful  how  the  light  begins  to  break 
in,  how  the  Holy  Spirit  begins  to  strive.  With  men 
in  their  state  of  darkness  the  Spirit  comes  in  small 
ways.  A  man  hears  the  gospel  message  here  and 
something  seems  to  say  to  him :  "  I  ought  to  be  a 
Christian."  The  light  is  already  breaking  in.  An- 
other man  says  to  himself:  "  If  I  only  were  true. 
My  God  !  How  I  would  like  to  be  true."  The  light 
is  almost  in.  Another  man,  two-thirds  back  in  this 
center  section,  half  arose,  but  sank  back  into  his 
seat.  He  could  not  be  persuaded  to  come  forward. 
The  light  was  struggling  to  get  in.  To-night  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  in  this  meeting.  I  know  He  is 
here.  When  my  friends  were  singing,  and  Mr. 
Alexander  was  leading,  when  the  minister  was 
praying,  I  knew  that  the  Spirit  was  here.  I  know 
that  He  is  here  at  this  moment  and  He  is  pleading. 
Pleading  with  those  of  you  whose  mothers  started 


CHASED  OUT  OF  THE  WORLD  31 

you  right,  with  those  of  you  whose  fathers  taught 
you  about  God,  with  those  of  you  to  whom  the  min- 
isters have  preached  for  years.  The  Spirit  is.  here 
and  the  light  is  trying  to  get  in.  'Now,  the  text 
again:    "He  shall  be  driven  from  light  into  dark- 


How  does  Satan  do  that?  Well,  he  goes  to  the 
man  who  says  I  wish  I  were  free,  and  says  to  him : 
"  Be  careful.  You  have  a  greater  freedom  than 
the  people  in  the  Church.  If  you  do  this  thing  at 
all,  do  it  secretly.  Don't  walk  down  that  aisle. 
Don't  make  a  spectacle  of  yourself.  Tell  the  min- 
ister you  will  join  the  Church,  but  you  won't  do  it 
in  his  way."  While  the  tempter  does  not  altogether 
drive  out  the  light  in  this  way,  he  goes  a  long  way 
toward  doing  it.  He  comes  to  one  who  was  almost 
persuaded  to  rise  this  afternoon,  and  says :  "  Be 
careful.  You  will  not  hold  out.  If  you  start  and 
fail,  people  will  point  their  fingers  at  you."  I 
stand  here  this  evening  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel 
to  say :  "  No,  you  cannot  hold  out."  ISTeither  can, 
I  in  my  own  strength.  But  I  know  of  One  whose 
story  is  written  in  this  Book.  One  who  puts  round 
about  us  His  everlasting  arms  and  holds  us  up. 
When  the  waves  beat  against  us,  when  temptations 
beset  us,  when  trials  are  upon  us,  then  He  holds 
us  fast.  Some  of  you  men  are  listening,  and  you,/ 
are  almost  persuaded,  but  the  Devil  is  telling  you 
falsehoods.  He  is  trying  to  drive  you  out  into  the 
darkness. 


32         CHASED  OUT  OF  THE  WORLD 

This  is  not  all.  Satan  may  use  conscience  as  a 
whip.  Some  of  you  have  committed  sins  that  you 
would  not  dare  tell  to  anyone.  Let  me  say  that 
sometimes  it  is  a  very  dangerous  thing  to  make  con- 
fessions to  men.  Of  course,  if  you  have  wronged 
another,  then  you  must  make  the  wrong  right.  If 
you  have  stolen  money,  you  must  make  restitution 
and  ask  forgiveness.  But  the  devil  comes  to  you 
and  says :  "  That  old  sin  of  yours !  "  Then  he 
lashes  you.  Yes,  he  fairly  lashes  your  memory. 
And  facing  the  memory  of  your  sin,  you  are  afraid. 
There  is  a  woman  in  this  city  of  advanced  years. 
She  would  take  her  stand  for  Christ  hut  for  this. 
I  have  heard  it,  not  from  her  lips,  hut  through  one 
^who  is  a  friend  of  hers.  This  aged  woman  feels 
that  if  she  should  take  her  stand  for  Christ  now, 
and  ask  for  membership  in  the  Church,  the  Church 
people  would  turn  against  her  and  shun  her.  I  am 
standing  here  as  the  representative  of  the  Church 
in  this  city,  and  I  say  that  Satan  is  using  this 
thought  as  a  lash  to  drive  this  woman  from  the 
light  into  the  darkness. 

When  we  were  in  Springfield,  a  woman  came  to 
the  front  whose  face  had  a  strange  look.  She  was 
introduced  to  me  by  a  gentleman.  Later  the  gen- 
tleman came  to  me  and  said :  "  The  name  I  gave 
you  is  not  her  name.  She  has  been  a  wicked 
woman  in  this  city  for  years.  About  five  years  ago 
she  gave  up  her  life  of  sin,  closed  her  house  of 
shame,  and  for  these  years  has  lived  a  good  life  to 


CHASED  OUT  OF  THE  WORLD  33 

the  best  of  mj  knowledge.  She  has  tried  to  undo 
her  past  sins  and  the  effect  of  them.  She  wants 
me  to  ask  you  this.  Are  you  prepared  to  say  that 
if  she  takes  her  stand  for  Jesus  Christ  the  churches 
will  receive  her?  She  is  afraid."  So  I  turned  to 
one  of  the  leading  ministers  of  the  city,  pastor  of 
one  of  the  great  churches,  a  very  conservative 
church.  I  told  him  the  story.  He  sent  a  message 
to  the  woman,  saying  to  her :  "  Come  into  our 
church.  You  are  as  welcome  as  anybody  in  the 
city.  Our  ladies  will  call  upon  you,  and.  I  will  put 
your  name  on  our  books,  for  I  believe  Christ  has 
written  it  in  heaven."  Some  of  you  are  almost  per- 
suaded, but  the  devil  is  lifting  up  your  past  sins 
and  telling  you  that  if  you  turn  to  Christ  these 
sins  will  have  to  be  answered  for.  I  say  to  you 
that  if  you  will  turn  to  Jesus  Christ  to-night, 
Christ  Himself  will  answer  for  your  sins,  and  the 
doors  of  the  Church  will  be  thrown  wide  open  to 
you.  Don't  let  Satan  drive  you  from  light  into 
darkness  and  chase  you  out  of  the  warmth  of  the 
spiritual  world. 

I  want  to  close  with  this.  Put  your  hands  over 
your  eyes  and  think.  Did  you  ever  see  a  Christian 
die?  How  about  your  mother,  and  what  about 
your  father?  When  William  Ewart  Gladstone  > 
died,  he  had  his  room  full  of  singing  birds,  and 
just  as  he  was  passing  away,  he  said :  "  Our 
Father  who  art  in  heaven."  When  William  Mc- 
Kinley  was  dying,   and  the  doctor  said  to  him: 


34'         CHASED  OUT  OF  THE  WORLD 

"  Mr.  President,  this  is  the  end,"  lie  smiled  back 
and  said :  "  If  this  is  the  end,  sing  a  hymn,"  and 
\  thej  sang  the  hymn  which  we  all  call  McKinley's 
hymn, — "  J^earer,  My  God,  to  Thee."  When  the 
great  evangelist  Dwight  L.  Moody  died,  his  son 
Will  was  by  his  side.  They  thought  Moody  had 
gone,  but  he  came  back,  as  it  were,  from  the  skies. 
With  a  radiant  face  he  said  to  his  son :  "  Will,  this 
is  wonderful,  perfectly  wonderful.  Earth  is  reced- 
ing, heaven  is  advancing." 

Tell  me  this,  did  you  ever  see  a  godless  man  die  ? 
I  asked  this  question  one  evening  at  a  meeting, 
and  a  physician  rose  in  the  meeting  and  said :  "  I 
have  seen  two  to-day,  sir,  and  God  keep  me  from 
ever  seeing  another."  The  text  is  a  true  descrip- 
tion. Driven  from  light  into  darkness  and  chased 
out  of  the  world.  Oh,  to  have  no  hope!  'No 
Saviour!  How  dark  the  world  is  without  Him. 
But  the  end  is  not  yet  here.  You  are  here  in  life 
and  strength.  You  have  the  power  to  decide.  God 
is  waiting  to  serve  you,  men  and  women.  For  the 
sake  of  Jesus  Christ,  turn.  For  the  sake  of  your 
people,  turn.  For  the  sake  of  the  town  in  which 
you  live,  turn.  For  the  sake  of  these  ministers  who 
are  anxious  about  you,  turn.  Husbands  and  wives 
come  forward  together.  How  wonderful  that  would 
be!  Turn  to-night!  What  a  memorable  meeting 
this  would  be  if  a  stream  of  people  would  push 
their  way  up  to  the  front,  finding  their  way  into 


CHASED  0U1?  OF  THE  WORLD  35 

the  light.  Don't  let  Satan  drive  jou  from  light 
into  darkness  and  chase  you  out  of  the  world. 
Christians,  turn  to  your  friends  by  your  side  and 
say  one  word, — Cornel 


Hi 

ETER:NriTY 

MY  text  this  evening  is  one  word.  Ever 
since  I  have  been  a  minister  I  have 
asked  God  to  help  me  say  two  v^ords 
and  say  them  properly.  It  is  said  that  Whiteiield 
used  to  say  "  Oh !  "  in  such  a  fashion  that  his  hear- 
ers were  convicted  of  sin  and  some  of  them  would 
cry  out  for  mercy.  The  first  word  that  I  would 
like  to  say  properly  is  "  Lost."  I  have  never  yet 
spoken  it  as  it  ought  to  be  uttered.  I  have  tried 
my  best  and  failed.  If  I  could  say  it  as  the  Son 
of  God  appreciated  it  when,  fainting  beneath  the 
weight  of  the  Cross,  He  staggered  up  Calvary's 
hill,  I  would  not  need  to  preach.  To  me  it  is  the 
most  striking  word  in  the  English  language.  The 
other  word  I  have  asked  God  to  help  me  say  is  the 
word  of  my  text.  It  is  written  in  Isaiah  57:15. 
It  is  the  word  "  Eternity.'' 

A  thousand  years  from  to-night  we  shall  be  some- 
where. Ten  thousand  years  from  to-night.  In- 
crease the  multiple  and  you  only  increase  the  truth. 
How  can  a  man  speak  a  word  that  takes  in  the  ages 
of  time  and  all  beyond  it.  Eteknity!  The  old 
cobbler  sat  day  after  day  on  his  little  bench,  ham- 
mering away  at  the  shoes,  and  before  him  was  an 

36 


ETERNITY  37 

old-fashioned  clock.  After  a  while  he  thought  that 
the  pendulum  of  the  clock  was  speaking  to  him  and 
he  heard  it  say  as  it  swung  one  way, — Eternity, 
and  when  it  went  the  other  way, — Where?  And 
the  old  clock  became  a  preacher  and  he  heard  it 
speaking  like  this :  "  Eternity,  where  ?  Eternity, 
where  ?  "  The  question  is  a  solemn  one.  Eternity, 
where  ? 

The  word  becomes  all  the  greater  when  I  add  to 
it  a  part  of  the  verse  in  which  the  text  is  found: 
*^  The  high  and  lofty  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity/' 
What  a  subject  for  thought  is  here.  I  speak  of  this 
One  and  they  tell  me  that  He  is  omnipresent,  that  l 
is,  everywhere.  I  speak  again  of  Him  and  they 
say  that  He  is  omnipotent,  that  is,  all-powerful. 
I  talk  of  Him  again  and  they  tell  me  that  He  is 
omniscient,  that  is,  all-knowing.  We  have  come  in 
contact  with  great  minds.  This  is  the  greatest. 
We  have  been  influenced  by  great  personalities. 
This  is  an  infinite  personality.  When  I  put  these 
words  together,  the  statement  of  my  text  is  start- 
ling. "  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity."  He  is  in- 
finite. He  is  eternal.  He  is  unchangeable. 
Eternity  is  the  place  of  His  abode. 

Answer  me  this  question:  Where  will  you 
spend  eternity?  ITobody  can  answer  it  but  you. 
If  I  could  answer  it  for  you,  God  knows  I  would. 
If  the  mother  who  wrote  this  request  that  I  hold 
in  my  hand  and  said :  "  My  heart  will  break  if  my 
boy  is  not  saved  " — if  she  could  answer  this  ques- 


38  ETERNITY 

tion  for  her  boy,  I  know  she  would.  God  has 
placed  the  power  of  choice  and  determination  in 
our  hands.  God  may  love,  and  Jesus  may  die,  and 
the  Spirit  may  plead,  but  you  alone  can  settle  the 
question  of  eternity.  Answer  me  this :  Where  will 
you  spend  eternity? 

I  was  preaching  in  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  when  a 
professor  of  mathematics  stepped  up  behind  me 
and  said :  "  Eternity  begins  where  computation 
ends."  I  said :  *^  Professor,  what  does  that  mean  ?  " 
^^  It  means  this,"  he  said,  "  that  when  the  man  with 
the  greatest  mind  the  world  has  known  thinks  his 
way  out  and  out  and  out  into  the  future,  and  his 
mind  fails  because  it  can  go  no  farther,  that  is  the 
beginning  of  eternity."  There  is  no  end.  Some- 
times men  try  to  measure  the  depth  of  dark  caverns, 
but  the  plummet  is  not  long  enough.  So  they 
measure  the  depth  like  this:  They  take  a  stop- 
watch in  one  hand  and  a  piece  of  rock  in  the  other, 
and  note  the  time  when  the  rock  drops  from  their 
fingers,  and  listen  as  it  strikes  the  bottom,  noting 
the  time  it  has  taken  to  fall.  If  you  know  the 
weight  of  the  rock  and  the  time  of  falling,  you  can 
measure  with  some  degree  of  accuracy  the  depth  of 
the  darlaiess.  They  tell  me  that  sometimes  they 
let  a  stone  fall  and  there  comes  back  no  answer 
from  below.  To-night  I  stand  on  the  edge  of  the 
precipice  of  time,  and  I  cry  up  into  the  light  and 
into  the  darkness:  "How  long  art  thou,  Eter- 
nity ?  "     I  get  the  answer  from  this  Book.     "  The 


ETERNITY  39 

peace  of  the  righteous  is  everlasting.     The  doom 
of  the  wicked  is  without  end." 

Where  will  jou  spend  it?  I  have  no  apology  to 
make  this  evening  for  asking  jou  to  think  about 
Eternity  when  there  are  so  many  problems  in  time. 
I  have  no  apology  for  asking  you  to  think  about  the 
future  when  on  all  sides  of  us  there  is  the  cry  of 
the  needy,  burdens  that  must  be  lifted,  and  tears 
that  must  be  wiped  away.  I  cry  out  for  this  rea- 
son. A  man  is  never  fitted  for  time  until  he  is  pre- 
pared for  eternity. 

One  of  the  members  of  my  household  was  dying. 
She  came  to  the  time  of  crisis.  The  doctor  took 
her  pulse.  It  was  six  o'clock.  "  She  will  pass  the 
crisis  at  midnight,''  he  said.  I  remember  how  we 
stood  and  watched  her  white  face,  and  then  the 
clock.  The  hands  seemed  never  to  move.  Every 
second  was  a  minute.  Every  minute  longer  than 
an  hour.  Six  hours  seemed  an  age.  If  every  day 
were  like  that,  we  should  still  have  no  conception 
of  eternity.  When  my  father  slipped  away  into 
eternity,  one  of  his  friends  gave  me  his  pocketbook. 
I  opened  it  and  found  inside  a  piece  of  poetry, 
stained  on  one  side  as  if  with  tears,  and  pasted  to- 
gether on  the  other  as  if  worn  with  much  reading. 
Some  of  the  verses  I  remember  after  all  these 
years : 

"  How  long  sometimes  a  day  appears, 
And  weeks,  how  long  are  they. 


40  ETERNITY 

Months  move  as  if  the  years 
"Would  never  pass  away. 

But  days  and  weeks  are  passing  by, 

And  soon  must  all  be  gone. 
For  day  by  day  as  moments  fly, 
^  Eternity  comes  on. 

Days,  months,  and  years  must  have  an  end, 

Eternity  has  none. 
'Twill  always  have  as  long  to  spend. 

As  when  at  first  begun. ' ' 

Tell  me,  this  evening,  where  will  you  spend  it? 
Here  in  this  world  you  have  crowded  God  out  of 
your  life.  You  have  lost  consideration  of  Him. 
You  have  divorced  your  business  from  Him.     You 

s  have  built  your  home  without  Him.  You  are 
training  your  children  without  Him.  Yet  you 
were  made  for  God.  ISTothing  less  than  God  can 
satisfy  you.  If  I  had  a  place  on  which  to  stand 
and  could  hurl  into  space  a  million  worlds  like 
ours,  I  could  never  fill  space.  When  I  open  my 
Bible,  I  read  in  the  Psalms :  "  If  I  ascend  up  into 
heaven,  thou  art  there;  if  I  make  my  bed  in  hell, 
behold,  thou  art  there."  Whether  I  climb  up  into 
the  light  or  go  down  into  the  darkness,  in  the  day- 
time, in  the  night-time,  I  find  God.  Only  God  can 
fill  space  and  only  God  can  fill  my  life. 

You  are  going  out  into  Eternity.     God  pity  you. 
Oh,  to  have  no  hope,  no  Saviour.     How  long  and 

f    dark  the  way  is.     Answer  me  this  question:    Do 


ETERNITY  41 

you  not  think  that  in  these  days,  especially  these 
prosperous  days,  we  are  thinking  too  much  of  time 
and  all  too  little  of  Eternity  ?  There  is  a  great 
war  filling  the  world  at  this  moment,  and  we  are  a 
neutral  nation.  Multitudes  of  homes  in  the'  na- 
tions of  Europe  have  marks  of  mourning  upon 
them.  I  received  a  letter  this  morning  from  a 
friend  in  Glasgow.  He  wrote  me  about  one  of  our 
dear  friends.  He  said :  "  Lady  Maclay  is  aging 
rapidly."  Grief  for  her  lost  boy  is  turning  her  life 
into  winter.  When  that  great  day  came,  June 
29th,  and  the  British  soldiers  charged  on  the  Dar- 
danelles, her  boy  went  down  in  a  moment.  And 
here  are  we,  in  this  great  protected  nation,  with  no 
roar  of  cannon  and  no  breaking  of  hearts.  We  are 
pursuing  wealth  and  pleasure.  We  are  forgetting 
God.  I  want  to  ask  you  this  question:  Do 
you  think  that  we  ought  to  be  called  to  serious 
thought  ?  I  am  neither  a  prophet  nor  a  son  of  a 
prophet,  but  I  know  what  will  come  to  America  if 
in  her  pursuit  after  pleasure  and  her  love  of  power 
she  continues  to  forget  God.  Judgment  w^ll  fall. 
Judgment !  I  tremble  for  the  country  that  will 
fiOt  hear  when  God  speaks,  and  for  the  man  who 
builds  for  time  and  has  no  thought  of  the  future. 

Answer  me  this  question:  Do  you  really  think 
that  men  at  heart  are  indifferent  ?  Let  your  mind 
run  over  the  list  of  men  you  know.  Do  you  think  that 
they  are  indifferent  ?  I  do  not.  I  know  men  fairly 
well.     I  know  what  they  sometimes  say  with  their 


^' 


42  ETERNITY 

lips.  If  I  were  to  go  througli  your  shops  and  some 
of  the  workmen  would  tell  me  they  were  not  inter- 
ested in  God,  I  should  know  they  were  not  speak- 
ing the  truth.  If  I  were  to  go  through  your  col- 
lege halls  and  some  student  would  say  that  he  was 
not  interested  in  spiritual  things,  I  should  know 
that  he  was  speaking  falsely.  They  are  not  indif- 
ferent. You  walk  the  streets  some  day  and  your 
best  friend  passes  you  and  you  never  see  him.  You 
take  your  seat  by  the  fireside  with  the  newspaper 
that  you  never  read  a  line  of.  You  were  saying  as 
you  walked  the  streets,  or  as  you  sat  by  the  fire- 
side, or  as  you  tossed  restlessly  upon  your  pillow: 
"  God !  Eternity !  My  soul !  What  must  I  do  to 
be  saved  ? " 

A  Christian  gentleman  went  to  one  of  the  judges 
in  the  state  of  Georgia  and  said :  "  Judge,  I  hear 
that  you  and  your  wife  are  to  separate."  He  was 
highly  indignant,  and  said :  "  Sir,  that  is  an  insult. 
No  two  people  in  this  world  have  loved  each  other 
more  devotedly.  Separate!  N'othing  could  sepa- 
rate us."  His  friend  said :  "  But,  Judge,  your 
wife  is  a  Christian.  She  is  far  from  well,  and  the 
doctor  tells  me  that  she  cannot  live  long,  and  you 
are  not  a  Christian.  Your  wife  will  go  straight  to 
God.  You  are  turning  your  back  on  Him."  The 
old  judge  stood  with  tears  running  down  his  cheeks 
and  lips  trembling  as  he  said :  "  My  God !  I  never 
thought  of  that." 

Men  are  not  indiiferent.     Answer  me  this:   Are 


ETERNITY  43 

you  reckless?  A  friend  of  mine  crossed  the  Alps, 
and  in  crossing  he  came  to  a  dangerous  pathway, 
not  much  wider  than  my  two  hands.  Deep  abysses 
yawned  on  either  side.  He  was  a  courageous  moun- 
.  tain  climber,  but  he  said :  "  I  shall  not  cross  it." 
'The  guide,  throwing  away  his  alpenstock  and  put- 
ting his  hand  over  his  eyes,  started  on  the  narrow 
pathway,  making  his  way  carefully  across,  until  at 
last  he  turned  and  beckoned  to  my  friend.  This 
old  Book  that  I  hold  in  my  hand  says:  The  path 
of  life  is  a  hand's  breadth,  and  life  itself  is  a  vapor. 
With  no  desire  to  appeal  to  your  emotions,  I  say 
what  every  doctor  would  warrant  me  in  saying: 
There  is  one  heart  beat  between  you  and  Eternity. 
Yet  you  hold  back  as  I  plead  with  you,  as  your  old 
mother  prays  for  you,  as  your  wife  is  in  agony 
about  you,  as  the  ministers  are  heartbroken  ov^er 
you — and  to-morrow,  to-morrow  may  be  Eternity. 
Got  pity  you.  I  do  not  understand  you.  Why  do 
you  not  come  to  Jesus  ? 

Answer  me  this :  Are  you  satisfied  ?  I  mean  the 
man  without  God.  I  had  a  dear  friend  in  my  first 
pastorate  in  'New  York.  He  was  the  president  of 
the  village.  A  great  warm-hearted  man.  I  loved 
him  devotedly  and  he  returned  my  aifection.  The 
devil  tripped  him  and  he  began  to  drink.  I  hate 
the  devil  for  that.  It  has  often  seemed  to  me  that 
men  like  my  friend  are  just  the  men  the  devil  trips 
up.  l!Tot  narrow,  stingy  men, — ^he  has  them  any- 
way— ^but  big  hearts,  big  men.    So  my  friend  went 


44  ETERNITY 

down.  When  he  bad  no  home  I  took  him  into 
mine,  but  he  would  not  stay.  He  was  a  great 
friend  to  me  in  the  days  of  his  prosperity.  I  was 
pastor  of  two  little  churches,  and  every  Sunday  I 
went  up  the  Hudson  and  preached  at  my  second 
church.  I  had  to  hire  a  horse  and  buggy,  and  I 
had  about  as  much  money  as  country  ministers 
usually  have.  It  cut  in  on  my  savings.  One  day 
I  heard  a  ring  at  the  door,  and  there  stood  my 
friend  with  a  big  fur  coat  on.  He  said :  "  Hurry, 
hurry."  I  thought  there  was  some  danger  near, 
and  so  ran  and  put  on  my  coat.  He  took  me  by 
the  arm  and  around  to  the  rear  of  the  house,  and 
there,  hitched  to  the  telegraph  pole,  was  a  gray 
horse  and  cutter.  I  have  seen  a  good  many  horses 
in  my  time,  but  that  one  was  perfection. 

We  got  into  the  cutter  and  drove  to  the  river 
where  the  ice  was  three  feet  thick.  We  drove  four 
miles  up  the  river,  and  then  he  put  the  reins  in  my 
hands  and  said :  "  Now,  you  drive."  ISTo  little  boy 
sitting  beside  his  father  was  ever  prouder  than  I 
was  when  I  took  the  reins  in  my  hands.  When  we 
got  to  the  end  of  the  drive,  we  came  to  my  house 
and  stepped  out  of  the  cutter.  It  was  at  that  mo- 
ment that  he  threw  his  arm  around  my  shoulder 
and  said :  "  This  is  yours."  Imagine  my  delight. 
And  the  devil  got  that  splendid  friend  of  mine. 
One  night  I  saw  him  all  in  rags,  and  I  went  to 
him  and  said :  ^^  Thank  God,  you  are  coming 
back."     "  N'ot  so  fast,"  he  said.     '^  But  you  are. 


ETERNITY  45 

Mr.  D ,  think  about  your  old  mother."     She 

was  dead  then.     "  Remember  your  wife  and  boy." 
The  boy  was  dead.     I  had  buried  him.     I^othing 
moved  my  friend.     Finally,  I  said :    "  You  are  not 
satisfied,  are  you  ?  "     He  sprang  to  his  feet  and 
held  on  to  the  back  of  the  chair,  swaying  for  the     , 
moment  as  if  he  would  fall,  and  said  a  thing  that 
I  can  hear  him  saying  now.     ^^  Satisfied !     What     Uy 
has  it  cost  me  ?    I,  the  president  of  the  village,  and     1 
homeless.     My  mother  dead  of  shame,  my  wife  in      ■ 
the  insane  asylum,  my  boy  in  his  grave.     Satis- 
fied!" 

ISTo  man  in  all  this  world  is  satisfied  without 
God.  You  are  not.  To-night  as  I  close  my  appeal 
I  say  to  every  man  in  this  building:  In  God's 
name,  why  don't  you  turn  ?  Why  don't  you  turn  ? 
Drifting,  drifting,  drifting,  out  into  the  sea  of 
Eternity!  And  I  stand  lifting  the  warning  cry: 
Why  don't  you  turn?  Tell  me  why.  The  very 
atmosphere  of  this  place  seems  filled  with  God.  It 
may  be  that  God  is  giving  some  of  you  your  last 
call.  The  door  is  open  and  it  may  shut  again. 
Turn  now.     Why  will  you  die? 

You  know  this  old  story.  I  happen  to  know  the 
real  truth  about  it,  for  a  friend  of  mine  was  in  a 
way  associated  with  it.  On  the  Harlem  railroad, 
a  man  kept  the  bridge.  It  was  an  old-fashioned 
draw-bridge  that  turned  with  man  power.  You  re- 
member how  he  got  a  message  to  keep  the  bridge 
shut  because  a  special  was  coming.     However,  just 


46  ETERNITY 

as  the  order  came  he  heard  the  whistle  of  a  little 
tug  boat,  and  saw  that  he  only  needed  to  throw  the 
bridge  a  little  to  let  the  tug  boat  through  with  her 
flagstaff.  After  he  had  let  the  tug  through  he 
turned  to  throw  the  bridge  back  and  something  was 
out  of  order.  He  bent  to  his  task,  pulling  and 
pushing.  The  sweat  came  in  great  drops  from  his 
brow.  An  agonizing  cry  rose  from  his  heart.  The 
special  came  down  the  track  and  through  the  open 
bridge,  and  scores  of  people  were  killed.  The 
keeper  of  the  drawbridge  was  a  man  under  fifty, 
and  in  the  night  his  hair  turned  as  white  as  snow. 
My  friend  went  to  where  they  kept  him  until  he 
died,  and  the  man  walked  up  and  down  in  his  lit- 
tle padded  cell  like  a  caged  tiger,  by  day  and  by 
night,  rarely  sleeping.  One  thing  he  kept  saying 
over  and  over  again :  "  Oh,  if  I  only  had.  If  I 
only  had.  If  I  only  had."  When  he  became  ex- 
hausted he  would  fall  on  his  cot,  only  to  rise  again 
and  say:   "  Oh,  if  I  only  had." 

To-night  the  door  is  wide  open  and  people  are 
praying  and  God  is  waiting.  It  would  be  an  awful 
thing  to  go  out  into  Eternity  saying :  "  If  I  only 
had."  To-night  I  plead  with  you.  I  think  God 
has  sent  me  to  some  of  you  to  give  you  another  call. 
These  meetings  are  going  on  because  God  in  his 
mercy  is  flinging  wide  the  door  once  more.  Come 
in.  Come  in.  You  fathers  here,  you  can  never 
expect  your  boys  to  go  in  unless  you  go  yourself. 


ETEENITY  47 

If  mj  mother  had  not  been  a  sweet,  consistent 
Christian,  dying  at  thirty-four,  I  wonder  where  I 
should  have  been.  You^joung  men,  you  boys  and 
girls,  everybody,  come  in! 


IV 

SOWING  AKD  REAPING 

I  AM  bringing  to  you  what  I  think  is  a  very 
solemn   subject.      I   have   no    apology   for 
speaking  on  solemn  themes,  for  we  are  liv- 
ing in  a  day  when  many  people  seem  to  be  turning 

"^  to  light  and  trifling  things.  We  have  reached  a 
time  when  men  regard  God  lightly.  In  fact,  many 
seem  to  have  put  Him  out  of  their  thoughts.  It 
used  to  be,  in  olden  days,  that  men  were  afraid 
when  they  sinned.  When  they  transgressed  God's 
law  they  thought  of  judgment,  and  their  minds 
went  forward  to  the  thought  of  final  punishment. 
Now  men  sin  with  impunity.  They  brush  God 
aside.  They  appear  to  think  that  if  there  be  a  God 
at  all,  they  can  escape  His  judgment.  They  are 
clever  and  rich.  They  are  too  important  for  judg- 
ment.    So  I  bring  you  to-night  a  message  which  I 

.  hope  and  pray  may  help  us  all  to  think.  It  is  a 
comparatively  easy  matter  to  lead  people  to  Christ 
if  they  will  only  think. 

The  text  is  in  Galatians  6 : 7 — "  Be  not  deceived. 
God  is  not  mocked.  For  whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 
that  shall  he  also  reap."  Do  you  not  see  how  this 
fits  in  with  my  preliminary  statement?  Stop  a 
minute  and  think  about  God.    He  is  infinite.    He 

48 


SOWING  AND  REAPING  49 

is  eternal.  He  is  omnipotent.  And  if  you  resist 
Him  to  the  end,  His  power  must  be  against  you. 
He  is  omniscient.  He  knows  what  we  are  thinking 
about  and  what  we  are  doing.  What  we  say  and 
do  is  written,  and  one  day  the  books  will  be  opened. 
He  is  omnipresent.  He  is  everywhere.  He  is  here 
to-night  as  I  magnify  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  in  /, 
your  room  last  night  when  you  sinned  against  Him. 
He  was  in  the  drug  store  when  you  slipped  in  and 
bought  drink  against  the  law.  He  sees  you  in  the 
darkness  of  the  night  and  in  the  brightness  of  the 
noonday.  He  is  always  about  you.  Think  of  His 
greatness.  He  holds  the  winds  in  the  hollow  of  His 
hands.     He  speaks  and  it  is  done. 

Now  come  back  to  the  text  again — Be  not  de- 
ceived. God  is  not  mocked.  For  whatsoever  a 
man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap.  What  does 
this  mean  ?  I  will  tell  you  exactly.  It  means  that 
God  is  not  to  be  ignored.  Many  of  us  have  actually 
done  this  in  our  actions,  if  not  in  our  thoughts.  ^ 
The  revelation  contained  in  the  Bible  counts  for 
nothing.  The  gift  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ — ^you 
are  not  bothering  about  it.  The  love  of  God — you 
have  no  use  for  it.  You  have  turned  your  back 
upon  God. 

But  the  text  says :   Be  not  deceived.    God  is  not 
to  be  mocked.    You  may  think  you  can  mock  Him, 
but  some  day  you  wiU  face  Him.     Oh,  it  is  well  ,. 
enough  to  think  that  you  can  get  along  without  God 
when  you  are  well  and  your  family  circle  is  un- 


50  SOWING  AND  REAPING 

broken  and  your  friends  are  many.  But  some  day, 
with  a  broken  beart,  and  broken  bealth,  and  a 
broken  family  circle,  and  friends  forsaking  you, 
where  will  you  be  wben  you  bave  reacbed  the  end  ? 
You  remember  the  old  story  of  tbe  stage  driver 
wbo  was  so  profane  tbat  the  people  wbo  travelled 
witb  bim  marvelled  at  bis  profanity  wben  be  led 
sucb  a  hazardous  life.  Tbey  wondered  tbat  be 
would  risk  blasphemy.  Tbey  talked  of  Christ,  only 
to  hear  His  name  blasphemed.  People  who  came  to 
like  bim  urged  him  to  become  a  Christian,  but  be 
resisted  all  pleas.  At  last  be  came  to  the  end.  He 
\  was  dying.  They  thought  that  he  had  gone,  when 
suddenly  they  saw  one  foot  moving  and  they  beard 
him  say  in  a  whisper :  "  I  am  on  the  down  grade 
and  I  can't  find  the  brake.''  Some  day,  some  day, 
men  and  women  who  bave  resisted  God,  spurned 
His  love,  and  trampled  it  beneath  their  feet,  will 
come  to  their  end  and  they  will  not  be  able  to  find 
tbe  brake.  Be  not  deceived.  God  is  not  mocked. 
For  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also 
reap. 

There  is  a  general  principle  of  judgment  which 
runs  all  through  God's  book.  If  you  start  in 
Genesis  and  go  through  to  Ecvelation,  you  will  find 
the  thought  mentioned  many  times.  But  I  should 
like  to  speak  particularly  of  two  judgments.  Watch 
very  carefully,  if  you  please.  Revelation  20:11 — 
"And  I  saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  Him  that 
sat  on  it,  from  whose  face  the  earth  and  the  heaven 


SOWING  AND  REAPING  51 

fled  away ;  and  there  was  found  no  place  for  them." 
Can  you  stand  a  judgment  like  that  ?  If  there  has 
been  a  record  made  of  your  life  to  the  present  time, 
all  your  profanity,  your  intemperance,  your  im- 
purity,— answer  me,  could  you  stand  that  ?  It  goes 
on  to  say,  "  and  the  books  were  opened."  Down 
South  the  colored  people  have  a  song  that  they  al- 
ways sing  in  the  minor  key.  It  runs  like  this: 
"  He  sees  all  we  do.  He  hears  all  we  say.  My 
God's  a  writing  all  the  time."  We,  too,  are  writ- 
ing our  own  record.  I  am  writing,  and  so  are  you. 
That  sin  of  yours  last  night  that  your  mother  does 
not  know  about, — it  is  written  down.  That  sin 
that  your  wife  does  not  know  about, — it  has  made 
its  record.  That  sin  you  committed  in  Pittsburgh, 
in  London,  that  sin  of  yours  in  Chicago,  that  sin 
committed  in  New  York.  I  was  saying  this  in 
Scotland,  and  Mr.  Alexander  said  I  went  far  afield 
to  say,  "  that  sin  committed  in  New  York,"  for  the 
people  in  Scotland  had  never  seen  New  York.  At 
the  close  of  the  service  three  men  came  forward, 
and  one  of  them  said :  "  You  have  uncovered  a  sin 
I  have  tried  to  hide  for  years.  I  went  to  New 
York  for  five  days,  and  was  so  far  away  from  home 
that  I  thought  I  might  give  way.  I  sinned,  and  I 
have  covered  it  over  all  my  life.  I  thought  no  one 
would  know  it."  The  surest  thing  about  sin  is  that 
it  makes  its  mark.  The  books,  God's  books  and 
your  book,  shall  be  opened.    Hear  the  text  again — 


52  SOWING  AND  REAPING 

Be  not  deceived.  God  is  not  mocked,  for  whatso- 
ever a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

Not  a  very  great  while  ago,  on  Long  Island,  not 
many  miles  from  my  home,  a  young  woman  turned 
away  from  her  husband.  He  was  a  man  of  wealth 
and  position.  No  one  ever  knew  why  she  left  him. 
She  went  away  with  another  man  very  much  her 
social  inferior.  Her  husband's  heart  was  broken. 
He  did  everything  he  could.  He  wrote  and  sent 
messages  to  her.  He  sent  his  father  after  her.  She 
would  not  return.  There  was  only  one  thing  to 
do  to  protect  his  name  and  household,  because  her 
sin  was  so  very  great,  and  that  was  to  divorce  her. 
He  was  forced  to  do  it.  She  married  her  com- 
panion in  sin  and  all  seemed  to  go  well,  but  one 
day  the  New  York  papers  contained  an  announce- 
,  ment  that  she  and  her  companion  were  dead.  They 
had  died  in  a  New  York  hotel  together.  She  left 
this  letter :  "  My  friends,  Fred  and  I  have  been 
young  and  heedless  and  cynical,  living  in  this  great 
wicked  city  of  New  York.  We  have  often  laughed 
at  what  the  preachers  say.  We  have  often  sneered 
at  the  words :  ^  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall 
he  also  reap,'  and  *  The  wages  of  sin  is  death.' 
People  say  it  is  old  fog^dsm.  Fred  and  I  know 
better.  We  are  reaping  the  harvest  and  we  cannot 
stand  it." 

It  seems  to  me  as  I  stand  here  this  evening,  that 
I  am  preaching  to  some  person  who  needs  my  mes- 
sage.    It  may  be  that  God  has  sent  you  here  to 


\r 


SOWING  AND  REAPING  53 

listen  to  what  I  am  saying.  The  time  has  come 
when  someone  must  speak  for  God  to  jou  and  say: 
Be  not  deceived.  God  is  not  mocked.  If  you  sow 
you  will  reap.  Of  course,  if  you  have  accepted 
Jesus  Christ  as  your  Saviour,  you  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the  "  great  white  throne  of  judgment."  I 
was  a  Christian  for  years  before  I  knew  this.  I 
had  thought  that  I  should  have  to  stand  face  to 
face  with  God  and  hear  His  "  depart "  or  "  wel- 
come," but  there  is  nothing  like  this  in  the  Bible. 
If  I  have  accepted  Jesus  Christ  as  my  personal 
Saviour,  I  have  already  appeared  in  judgment  in 
his  person,  and  I  shall  never  stand  in  judgment  j  ^/^ 
again.  But  unless  I  take  Him,  unless  I  yield  to 
^im,  and  in  sincere  and  honest  repentance  turn 
from  sin,  then  judgment  is  awaiting  me. 

So  many  young  men  seem  to  think  that  they  can 
sow  their  wild  oats  with  impunity.  I  have  heard 
men  say  that  wild  oats  must  be  sown,  but  hear  me 
when  I  say,  if  you  sow  your  wild  oats  you  will  reap 
the  same  harvest,  the  same  harvest !  Just  so  surely 
as  God  lives  and  you  do  not  repent,  hear  me,  one 
day  the  reaping  time  will  come.  I  am  greatly  con- 
cerned about  men  who  do  not  come  to  Christ.  I 
have  come  to  feel  in  these  days  as  if  I  were  preach- 
ing to  my  own  people.  I  have  come  to  know  you 
well.  I  have  been  in  intimate  touch  with  many 
of  the  students.  I  have  lost  all  thought  of  a  pro- 
miscuous audience.  It  seems  to  me  as  if  I  were 
standing  here  pleading  for  my  own.    Hear  me  then, 


54  SOWING  AND  REAPING 

my  friends,  as  I  say :  Be  not  deceived.  God  is  not 
mocked.  For  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 
he  also  reap.  It  is  written  plainly  in  God's  Word. 
It  is  proved  by  experience.  We  shall  reap  if  we 
sow.  Sow  a  thought  and  you  reap  an  act.  Sow 
an  act  and  you  reap  a  habit.  Sow  a  habit  and  you 
reap  a  character.  Sow  a  character  and  you  reap  a 
destiny.  It  is  written  in  God's  Word  that  we  shall 
reap  what  we  sow. 

A  well-dressed  man  came  to  me  in  one  of  the 
meetings  in  Ohio  and  slipped  a  letter  into  my  hand. 
It  said :  "  My  name  is  so  and  so.  My  telephone 
number  is  so  and  so.  You  may  call  me  if  you 
wish.  I  lived  a  wicked  life  before  my  marriage. 
I  was  false  to  everything  that  stood  for  manhood. 
I  thought  that  I  was  too  clever  to  be  trapped.  I 
married.  My  wife  was  beautiful.  There  came  to 
our  home  a  little  child.  I  thought  sunshine  had 
come  at  last.  I  loved  the  child  devotedly.  I  used 
\  to  take  her  in  my  arms  and  fondle  her,  covering 
her  face  with  my  kisses.  One  day  I  noticed  some- 
thing wrong  with  the  child  and  I  took  her  to  a  great 
specialist.  He  came  to  my  home  and  called  a  con- 
ference of  other  doctors.  They  went  over  my  little 
baby,  studying  every  part  of  her  body.  They  came 
to  my  library,  for  I  am  a  man  of  position  and 
means,  and  they  said :  ^  Sir,  what  was  your  life 
before  marriage  ? '  My  God !  I  had  to  tell  them 
that  my  life  before  marriage  was  in  open  rebellion 
of  God's  laws.     Then  the  doctor  led  me  over  to  the 


SOWING  AND  REAPING  55 

side  of  the  room  and  put  his  hand  on  my  shoulder, 
and  said :  '  Sir,  this  is  your  harvest.  Your  baby 
will  go  through  life,  if  she  lives,  with  a  twisted 
spine  and  shut  eyes.'  " — Be  not  deceived.  God  is 
not  mocked.  For  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap. 

When  we  were  going  around  the  world  we 
stopped  one  day  at  Thursday  Island,  and  there  I 
heard  a  sorrowful  tale.  There  is  much  leprosy  on 
the  other  side  of  the  world,  especially  in  the  tropics. 
One  day,  not  far  from  Thursday  Island,  it  was 
found  that  a  little  boy  and  girl  belonging  to  a  good 
home  were  lepers.  The  laws  are  very  strict,  and 
while  the  wealth  of  the  father  of  the  children  was 
great,  it  was  decided  that  the  family  should  live 
alone  on  another  island.  The  mother  stole  away 
with  the  children  and  was  lost  in  Sidney  for  two 
Years,  until,  strange  to  say,  her  children  were  ad- 
mitted to  the  schools.  Then  the  law  found  them 
again  and  they  were  taken  back  to  the  vicinity  of 
Thursday  Island,  and  the  law  began  its  operation. 
The  children  were  separated  from  the  family  and 
sent  to  the  leper  island.  But  how  did  they  become 
lepers?  How?  The  mother,  with  her  love  of  so- 
cial position,  thought  the  cares  of  motherhood  too 
heavy,  so  she  had  a  South  Sea  Island  woman  to 
care  for  her  children,  and  she  was  leprous.  This 
was  the  story,  and  when  I  heard  it  and  saw  what 
a  harvest  had  come  to  that  woman  for  the  seeds 
she  had  sown,  I  could  not  withhold  my  tears.     It 


56  SOWING  AND  REAPING 

is  hard  to  sin  wlien  sin  hurts  yourself  and  tosses 
you  on  your  bed  so  that  you  cannot  sleep,  and  you 
say:  Will  the  morning  never  come?  But  it  is 
harder  still  to  sin  and  to  hurt  one's  wife  and  chil- 
dren, or  other  dear  ones.  Be  not  deceived.  God  is 
not  mocked.  For  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap. 

I  have  come  to  the  close  of  my  appeal.  I  do  not 
need  to  preach  longer.  In  the  light  of  my  text  to- 
night, I  say  to  all  of  you  that  we  reap  the  harvest 
of  what  we  have  sown.  The  harvest  may  be  an  im- 
paired will,  a  ruined  character,  injury  and  sorrow 
to  others.  Hear  me  again, — ^be  not  deceived.  God 
is  not  mocked.  For  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap.  My  heart  grieves  for  any  sin- 
ner who  stays  away  from  the  Saviour.  I  have  a 
mind  to  give  my  place  on  the  platform  to  someone 
else,  so  that  I  might  go  back  through  the  building 
to  this  one  and  that  one,  and  say :  Turn  ye !  Turn 
ye !  For  why  will  you  die  ?  I  have  a  mind  to  lay 
hold  upon  you  and  compel  you  to  come,  for  there 
is  only  one  way  in  all  this  world  to  escape  the  law 
of  which  I  am  speaking.  That  way  is  this:  Be- 
lieve on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved.  If  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt  believe  in  thy  heart  that  God 
hath  raised  Him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be 
saved.  Can  I  say  any  more  than  this  ?  God  help 
you !  Some  of  you  are  sitting  there  and  saying  to 
yourselves :    "  I  am  too  timid."     Come  down  when 


SOWING  AND  REAPING  57 

the  crowd  rises.  Some  of  you  are  saying :  "  I  can 
settle  it  here.''  It  would  be  worth  everything  for 
you  to  come  out  in  the  open  and  walk  down  this 
aisle.  Come  forward  and  let  me  take  your  hand, 
and  let  me  hear  you  say :  "  God  being  my  helper, 
I  am  going  to  turn  to  Christ  to-night."  Now  is 
the  time. 


"WHEEE  IS  AEEL  THY  BROTHER?" 

YOU  will  find  my  text  in  Genesis  4:9 — 
"  Where  is  Abel  thy  brother?  "  When 
the  first  man  had  sinned  and  was  seek- 
ing to  get  away  from  God,  God  went  seeking  him 
and  saying:  Where  art  thou?  The  first  question 
put  by  God  to  man  had  to  do  with  his  personal  re- 
^  lationship  to  God.  The  second  question  has  to  do 
■^  with  man's  relation  to  his  brother.  I  bring  you  this 
second  question:    Where  is  Abel  thy  brother? 

Stop  for  a  moment  and  think.  Do  you  know 
where  your  brother  is  ?  Whether  the  man  by  your 
side  is  a  Christian  or  not,  he  is  your  brother.  Can 
you  answer  the  text?  Daniel  Webster  once  said 
that  the  greatest  question  a  man  has  to  face  is  his 
'*  individual  responsibility  to  God.  I  know  what  the 
second  greatest  question  is.  It  is  the  question  of 
our  relation  to  those  about  us.  Cain  and  Abel  met 
in  the  field,  and  in  a  fit  of  anger  Cain  slew  his 
brother.  God  came  seeking  the  brother,  and  when 
he  put  to  Cain  the  question  of  the  text,  he  fixed  a 
mark  upon  Cain  which  he  bore  to  his  death.  God 
always  puts  a  mark  upon  us  when  we  sin.  Some- 
times it  is  in  the  look  of  the  eye.  Sometimes  it  is 
in  the  sound  of  the  voice,  or  in  the  way  we  stand. 

58 


"WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER? '^     59 

Often  there  is  a  nervous  restlessness  in  sin.  The 
sad  thing  to  me  is  that  we  transmit  that  mark  from 
generation  to  generation.  You  sin  to-day  and  fifty 
years  from  to-day  someone  may  rise  up  to  curse 
you.     Sin  is  awful. 

I  have  an  idea  that  there  is  also  a  mark  for  faith- 
lessness. You  have  lived  with  your  husband  for 
years,  with  your  boy  from  his  birth,  with  your  Sun- 
day School  class  for  years,  with  your  associate  in 
business  for  years,  and  never  a  word  about  Jesus. 
In  one  of  our  meetings  I  saw  a  woman  sobbing 
violently.  I  took  my  place  by  her  side,  and  all  I 
could  get  her  to  say  was :  "  I  never  warned  him." 
Finally,  to  another  minister  she  said :  "  I  was  be- 
trothed to  a  gentleman.  I  loved  him  dearly.  I  had 
been  a  member  of  the  church  since  childhood.  I 
knew  he  was  not  saved.  Last  week  he  died.  I 
never  warned  him." 

I  believe  there  is  a  great  opportunity  here  for  a 
sweeping  revival.  Hearts  are  open.  Men  and 
women  are  awaiting  approach.  But  I  know  this 
also,  that  hundreds  of  people  in  this  city  will  never  i 
"be  saved  unless  you  approach  them  first.  I  wish  I 
could  persuade  ministers  to  double  their  efforts,  to 
increase  their  visits,  to  give  up  even  their  pulpit 
preparation  and  go  from  house  to  house,  and  street 
to  street,  saying;  I  beseech  you  be  reconciled  to 
God.  I  wish  I  could  persuade  every  Christian 
Sunday  School  scholar  in  this  building  to  resolve, 
before  leaving  this   service,   to  speak  to   someone 


60    "WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER?" 

about  Jesus.  To-morrow  night  we  would  see  them 
pressing  their  way  into  the  Kingdom  like  doves  to 
their  windows. 

Often  there  is  only  a  word  needed.  Not  a  great 
while  ago  a  friend  of  mine  told  me  of  a  young  fel- 
low entering  the  ministry.  My  friend  asked  him 
how  he  gave  himself  to  Christ  and  to  the  ministry. 
His  answer  was  this :  "  I  was  a  caddy  on  a  golf 
course.  Monday  morning,  the  Hon.  Hugh  Hanna, 
of  Indianapolis,  came  to  play.  I  was  his  caddy. 
He  turned  to  me  and  said :  '  I  suppose  you  are 
much  rested  this  morning.'  '  l^o,  sir,'  I  said,  '  I 
am  very  tired.'  ^  How  is  that,'  he  said.  '  Because 
I  caddied  all  day  yesterday.'  Then  the  Christian 
gentleman  said  to  me :  *  My  son,  you  should  not 
do  that.  You  should  keep  God's  day  holy.  Are 
you  a  Christian  ? '  '  No,  sir,'  I  answered,  and  the 
great  man  said :  '  Well,  my  son,  I  wish  I  could 
help  you  to  be  a  Christian.  There  is  nothing  in 
this  world  like  it.'  "  Hugh  Hanna  foi^ot  the  con- 
versation, but  the  boy  never  did.  Soon  he  went  to 
school.  He  worked  his  way  through  the  university. 
He  started  on  his  way  to  the  ministry.  One  word 
did  it.  I  VTish  I  could  help  you  to  understand,  this 
evening,  what  personal  influence  is,  how,  when  a 
life  is  yielded  to  God  and  the  Spirit  of  God  fills 
the  life,  God  may  use  even  a  trivial  thing  to  win 
a  soul. 

When  we  were  in  Scotland  I  learned  an  interest- 
ing fact  of  history,  which,  of  course,  is  familiar  to 


"WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER?"     61 

many.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  an  ordi- 
nary peddler  sold  a  book  to  a  comparatively  un- 
known man.  That  man  was  Richard  Baxter.  He 
read  the  book  and  wrote  "  The  Saints'  Everlasting 
Rest."  This  book  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  man 
named  Philip  Doddridge.  He  read  it  and  wrote 
"  The  Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul." 
This  book  in  turn  fell  into  the  hands  of  Wilber- 
force.  He  read  it  and  wrote  "  A  Practical  View 
of  Christianity."  This  book  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Leigh  Richmond,  who  wrote  the  ^'  DairjTnan's 
Daughter."  This  book  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Thomas  Chalmers,  who  became  Scotland's  greatest 
preacher.  He  was  not  a  Christian,  he  says,  at  the 
time  he  read  the  book,  although  he  was  already 
preaching  the  gospel.  His  soul  was  fired,  and  he 
dropped  on  his  knees  in  his  study  in  complete  sur- 
render. To-day  they  refer  to  him  as  the  greatest 
theologian  and  preacher  of  all  Scotland's  great  his- 
tory. A  peddler  on  one  hand,  Thomas  Chalmers 
on  the  other.  Oh,  if  I  could  help  you  all  to  feel  the 
power  of  influence. 

I  believe  we  have  come  to  a  place  in  these  meet- 
ings where  as  believing  men  and  women  we  must 
throw  ourselves  at  the  feet  of  the  Master.  "\Arhere 
is  Abel  thy  brother?  I  think  I  know  what  the 
trouble  in  the  Church  is.  I  know  that  the  churches 
do  not  mean  to  be  inconsistent.  Church  members 
do  not  mean  to  turn  away  from  the  service  of  the 
Master.     I  resent  the  criticism  which  some  hurl 


62    "WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER?" 

against  the  Churcli.  Yet  I  know  the  weakness  of 
the  Church. 

When  we  were  in  England,  I  read  in  one  of  the 
London  papers  how  two  men,  standing  on  a  dock 
in  one  of  the  harbours,  were  pushed  into  the  water. 
Thej  were  strong  swimmers,  but  the  tide  was  so 
swift  that  they  were  borne  away  from  the  dock.  It 
seemed  as  if  they  would  surely  lose  their  lives. 
The  harbour  authorities  were  notified,  but  they 
said:  This  is  not  our  business.  Word  was  sent  to 
the  district  authorities,  but  they  replied:  This  is 
not  our  work.  At  last,  the  harbour  people  notified 
the  Superintendent  of  Police,  but  there  had  been 
no  drowning  recently,  and  when  they  went  for  their 
appliances  they  were  out  of  order.  Finally,  a  man 
threw  himself  into  the  sea,  battled  his  way  out  to 
where  the  men  had  last  been  seen,  and  found  that 
they  were  gone. 

This  is  an  exaggerated  picture  of  the  Church. 
It  would  be  an  unfair  criticism  to  say  that  the 
Church  is  like  this,  but  I  do  know  that  many  people 
in  the  Church  are  excusing  themselves.  They  think 
that  their  minister  should  do  all  the  personal  work, 
or  they  think  that  the  Sunday  School  teachers 
should  make  a  specialty  of  winning  souls.  They 
can  understand  how,  when  I  stand  here  night  after 
night,  I  should  preach  with  tears  and  cry  out  until 
I  can  plead  no  longer  for  lack  of  physical  energy, 
but  they  do  not  understand  that  they  are  expected 
to  do  something  themselves.     God  has  a  plan  of 


^^ WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER?"     63 

economy  of  his  own.  He  means  that  every  Chris- 
tian, every  Church  member,  every  Sunday  School  1 
teacher,  every  scholar,  should  be  on  the  lookout  for 
souls.  Where  is  Abel  thy  brother?  If  all  of  you 
would  help,  a  thousand  people  would  be  brought 
to  Christ  this  week.  Your  leading  citizens  would 
come  down  these  aisles.  Your  representative 
women  would  find  their  way  to  the  front.  Scores 
of  young  men  and  women  would  push  their  way 
forward. 

In  an  Indiana  city,  a  gentleman  who  is  a  mem- 
ber of  CongTess  said  that  God  had  spoken  to  him 
very  clearly.  He  went  home  and  tossed  on  his  bed 
all  night  without  sleeping.  He  rose  in  the  morning 
at  five  o'clock,  made  his  way  to  the  house  of  his 
law  partner,  and  rang  the  bell.  When  the  servant 
had  dressed  himself  and  opened  the  door,  he  found 
this  distinguished  man  waiting.  "  I  must  see  Mr. 
so  and  so,"  said  the  visitor.  In  ten  minutes  the 
gentleman  of  the  house  was  in  the  library,  think- 
ing something  was  wrong.  The  member  of  Con- 
gress put  his  arm  affectionately  around  his  friend's 
shoulder  and  said :  "  Tom,  you  and  I  have  loved 
each  other  for  years.  We  were  boys  together  in 
the  country  school.  We  carved  our  names  together 
on  the  wooden  desks.  We  have  been  law  partners 
for  years.  I  love  you.  I  am  a  leader  in  the 
Church,  but  I  have  never  spoken  to  you  about  your 
soul.  Oh,  Tom !  "  'No  other  word  was  spoken.  A 
little  later  I  saw  that  friend  walk  down  the  aisle 


64    "WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER?" 

of  a  crowded  church  and  say :  "I  will  accept 
Christ  as  my  Saviour." 

Somebody  must  speak  the  word.  Prayers  must 
he  sobbed  out.  Letters  must  be  written.  Personal 
visits  must  be  made.  I  know  how  it  was  when  I 
was  a  student  in  the  university.  When  the  days 
of  revival  were  on,  the  Christian  students  would 
go  from  room  to  room,  speaking  to  men  that  were 
careless.  When  work  like  that  is  being  done,  souls 
begin  to  flock  into  the  Kingdom  like  doves  to  the 
windows.  There  is  not  a  young  man  in  the  college 
yonder  but  would  be  moved  if  the  right  man  went 
to  him  saying,  with  tears  in  his  eyes :  "  I  am  con- 
cerned for  you."  Hear  me.  Where  is  Abel  thy 
brother  ? 

Suppose  you  had  a  boy  who  had  been  cured  of 
a  dangerous  disease.  You  were  fortunate  in  find- 
ing a  doctor  who  understood  the  case.  And  sup- 
pose you  knew  of  another  man  whose  boy  was 
dying  with  the  same  disease,  and  there  was  no 
doctor  to  cure  him.  Would  you  sit  with  your  arms 
folded  reading  the  newspaper,  or  looking  into  the 
fire?  You  would  not  stand  on  ceremony.  You 
would  not  wait  for  an  invitation.  You  would  go 
to  this  man  and  say :  "  My  boy  was  sick  unto 
death.    I  want  to  introduce  you  to  his  doctor." 

I  was  walking  along  the  streets  of  London.  The 
streets  were  crowded  with  soldiers.  As  I  came  to 
a  little  narrow  alleyway  I  saw  that  the  crowd  was 
surging  there,  and  I  heard  a  voice  say:    "Won't 


"WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER?"     65 

somebody  help  me  ? "  I  looked  around,  and  there 
was  a  blind  man.  He  could  walk  in  the  alleyway, 
but  he  was  afraid  of  the  crowd.  Do  you  suppose  , 
that  I  could  turn  my  back  on  a  man  in  that  plight  ? 
Hundreds  of  us  in  that  crowd  felt  like  stopping  to 
heed  his  cry.  Yet  in  this  city  of  culture  and  re- 
finement, and  even  of  boasted  education,  there  are 
people  who  are  blind.  Shall  we  not  help  them  to 
see?     Where  is  Abel  thy  brother? 

There  is  a  man  in  New  York  of  great  wealth. 
He  has  a  country  home  on  Long  Island  Sound  on 
an  island  just  out  from  the  mainland.  His  family 
so  enjoy  the  country  home  that  they  stay  late  into 
the  autumn.  One  day  this  man  and  his  son  left 
'New  York  for  the  countrj^  place.  They  were  ac- 
customed to  go  across  from  the  mainland  in  a 
launch,  but  for  some  reason  the  launch  was  out  of 
order,  so  they  took  a  rowboat  and  started  across. 
A  sudden  storm  came  up  and  the  boat  was  capsized. 
The  father  could  swim,  but  the  boy  could  not. 
Both  of  them  went  down.  The  father  came  to  the 
surface  and  threw  his  arm  around  his  boy,,  shout- 
ing for  help.  A  man  on  the  shore  heard  the  cry, 
but  there  was  no  boat  at  hand.  The  boy  went  down 
again,  and  again  the  father  caught  him  as  he  came 
up,  battling  all  the  while  with  the  waves.  Losing 
hold  with  his  hand,  he  caught  the  boy  with  his 
teeth,  but  the  coat  gave  way.  Shouting  for  help, 
he  made  one  more  clutch  at  the  boy  and  missed 
him.    It  was  the  last  he  ever  saw  of  him.    I  under- 


66    ^' WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER?" 

stand  that  father's  frenzied  effort.  If  my  boy  were 
in  physical  danger  I  should  be  frantic.  But  if  I 
should  get  a  telegram  saying  that  he  was  facing 
\  death  and  had  no  Saviour,  I  should  be  in  an  agony. 
I  cannot  understand  how  men  are  so  greatly  con- 
cerned about  the  physical  danger  of  their  loved 
ones  and  are  indifferent  to  their  spiritual  danger. 

Where  is  Abel  thy  brother?  Tell  me.  I  know 
what  you  are  saying.  You  are  saying  just  what 
an  old  man  said  this  afternoon.  One  of  our  work- 
ers talked  to  him,  and  the  old  man,  with  tears  in 
his  eyes,  kept  saying:  "  Sometime,  sometime, 
sometime."  And  you,  too,  are  saying — ^sometime. 
You  are  going  to  speak  to  your  boy  to-morrow 
morning.  At  breakfast  the  bell  rings  and  your  boy 
is  not  present.  You  wait  and  he  does  not  come. 
You  listen  for  his  footsteps  and  cannot  hear  them. 
Presently  the  mother  comes,  and  pushes  open  the 
door.  You  can  see  anxiety  in  her  face.  Your  boy 
is  sick  unto  death.  When  you  meet  God,  the  ques- 
tion will  be  asked :  Where  is  your  son  ?  Why  did 
you  never  invite  him?  Why  did  you  never  call 
him?  Why  did  you  never  tell  him  about  Christ 
and  eternal  life,  and  the  judgment  ?  Some  day  he 
will  face  the  judgment,  and  you  also  will  face  it. 

I  must  close  my  message,  but  I  must  not  leave 
this  platform  to-night  with  the  impression  that  all 
the  responsibility  is  upon  me  and  my  brethren  in 
the  ministry,  or  upon  the  Christian  people  of  this 
city.     I  turn  to  you,  my  friend,  and  I  say:    How 


"WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER?"     67 

about  yourself  ?  You  are  not  a  Christian,  and  like 
tlie  old  man  to-day,  you  are  saying:  Sometime, 
sometime.  In  Dundee,  Scotland,  a  wild  and  reck- 
less boy  broke  his  mother's  heart.  He  went  from 
one  depth  of  sin  and  shame  to  another,  and  then 
fled  from  home.  Blindly  drunk,  he  made  his  way 
to  a  ship,  and  when  he  awoke  in  the  morning,  he 
was  at  sea  on  the  way  to  Australia.  They  would 
not  let  him  off.  After  a  while  he  reached  the  gold 
fields.  There  he  had  common  miner's  luck,  until 
one  day  he  struck  a  pocket  of  gold.  One  nugget 
after  another  came  up  out  of  that  pocket.  In  the 
morning  he  went  out  poor,  and  by  high  noon  he 
stood  with  gold  heaped  about  his  feet.  Of  whom 
do  you  think  he  thought  first,  standing  there  with 
the  gold  at  his  feet  ?  ''  Mother,"  he  said,  "  I  will 
go  back  to  old  Dundee  and  buy  you  the  finest  house 
in  the  city.  I  will  get  you  the  best  car  that  runs." 
Soon  he  was  on  the  sea,  going  back  to  Dundee.  Ar- 
rived in  the  old  town,  he  was  soon  standing  in  front 
of  the  little  house.  There  was  no  light  in  the  win- 
dow, no  smoke  coming  out  of  the  chimney.  When 
he  rapped  at  the  door,  there  was  no  answer.  Then 
he  went  to  a  neighbour's  house.  They  said  to  him : 
'*  Jack,  stay  with  us  until  morning  and  we  will  tell 
you."  When  morning  came  they  took  him  out  to 
the  churchyard.  The  place  is  not  far  from  Mr. 
Carnegie's  castle.  Past  this  grave  and  that  they 
went,  until  at  length  they  came  to  a  new  grave.  It 
was  his  mother's  grava     On  the  front  board  he 


68    "WHERE  IS  ABEL  THY  BROTHER?" 

read  his  raotlier's  name,  and  the  date  of  her  death. 
He  got  down  on  his  knees  and  buried  his  face  in 
his  hands  and  sobbed  as  only  a  big  man  can  sob. 
"  Mother,  mother/*  he  cried,  "  I  did  love  you.  I 
did  love  you."  The  one  who  stood  by  his  side  later 
became  his  wife.  Very  gently  she  said  to  him: 
^'  Jack,  you  told  her  too  late."  Yes,  it  was  too  late. 
Some  day  you  expect  to  be  saved.  You  want  to 
be  witlr  your  family,  with  your  mother,  in  the 
skies.  You  would  like  to  see  your  sweet  child 
again  who  has  gone  on  before. 

*'  And  if  you  still  this  call  refuse, 
And  all  His  wondrous  love  abuse; 
^  Soon  will  He  sadly  from  you  turn,    . 

Your  bitter  cry  for  pardon  spurn. 
Too  late,  too  late,  will  be  the  cry, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  passed  by." 

I  have  finished  my  word  to  you  to-night.  I  stand 
just  a  moment  longer  and  say :  "  Where  is  Abel 
thy  brother  ?    Where  is  he,  and  where  are  you  ?  " 


VI 

THE  ACCEPTED  TIME 

MY  text  is  familiar — II  Corinthians  6 :  2 
— ''  Behold,  now  is  the  accepted  time ; 
behold,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation." 
This  text  is  generally  made  use  of  in  appeals  to 
those  who  are  not  Christians,  but  if  you  will  read 
the  verses  preceding  and  following  the  text,  you 
will  see  that  it  is  an  appeal  as  well  to  those  who 
are  already  Christians.  Let  me  say  in  the  begin- 
ning that  salvation  has  been  provided  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  an  old-fashioned 
statement  to  make,  but  I  am  an  old-fashioned 
preacher.  It  is  the  sacrificial  death  of  Christ  that 
brings  salvation  to  man.  Salvation  is  a  very  broad 
and  inclusive  word.  It  means  for  one  thing  that 
we  are  justified.  If  you  realized  the  meaning  of 
this  word  justification,  you  would  shout.  It  means 
to  stand  before  God  as  if  you  had  never  sinned.  It 
means  to  have  every  sin  put  away.  It  means  to 
stand  in  God's  sight  with  your  life  as  clean  and 
white  as  the  pages  of  this  Book.  Also  it  means 
redemption.  I  want  you  to  catch  a  vision  of  the 
marvelous  thing  that  is  yours  when  you  accept 
Jesus  Christ.  "  We  are  redeemed,  not  with  cor- 
ruptible things,  such  as  silver  and  gold,  but  with 
the  precious  blood  of  Christ." 

69 


70  THE  ACCEPTED  TIME 

I  was  standing  the  other  daj  in  Tiffany's,  in 
ITew  York,  and  I  overheard  a  woman  asking  to  see 
some  pearls.  The  salesman  placed  on  the  counter 
some  wonderful  pearls.  I  heard  him  say  that  the 
price  was  $17,000.     When  I  looked  at  them,  they 

^  seemed  overwhelmingly  splendid.  This  sum  repre- 
sented Tiffany's  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  pearls. 
You  may  say  that  your  life  is  not  worth  very  much, 
but  I  tell  you  that  you  are  redeemed  by  the 
precious  blood  of  Christ.  I  tell  you  that  in  the 
^sight  of  God  you  are  worth  more  than  all  the  gold 
in  the  hills,  all  the  diamonds  in  the  fields.  Salva- 
tion! It  is  a  wonderful  word.  It  means  forgive- 
ness. I  wonder  if  we  truly  appreciate  what  divine 
forgiveness  is.  Suppose  you  do  me  an  injury,  and 
I  say  that  I  will  forgive  it.  I  mean  it,  too.  But 
you  meet  me  five  years  hence,  and  you  find  me  still 
thinking  about  the  injury.  I  have  forgiven,  but 
I  have  not  forgotten.  One  of  the  most  wonderful 
things  written  in  God's  Book — it  makes  my  heart 

:  burn  and  brings  tears  to  my  eyes  when  I  read  it — 
is  that  when  God  forgives,  he  forgets.  He  puts 
my  sins  behind  His  back,  casts  them  into  the 
depths  of  the  sea,  hurls  them  as  far  as  the  east  is 
from  the  west.  I  am  a  quiet  man,  not  much  given 
to  shouting.  I  like  very  well  what  one  of  the  pa- 
pers said  the  other  day,  that  when  I  wanted  to 
make  a  special  emphasis,  I  lowered  my  voice  in- 
stead of  raising  it.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  I  want 
to  shout  to-night  as  I  am  telling  you  about  salva- 


THE  ACCEPTED  TIME  71 

tion.      Salvation    means    redemption.      It    means 
justification.     It  means  divine  forgiveness  and  for-  y/ 
getfulness  of  sin.     When  I  read  mj  text  in  the 
light  of  this  statement,  it  grows  wonderful.     Be- 
hold, now  is  the  day  of  salvation. 

What  does  the  text  really  mean  ?  It  means  that 
now  is  the  day  to  present  salvation  to  others.  iTow  »^ 
is  the  day  to  tell  them  about  it.  To-day  is  the  day 
to  announce  it  to  your  children,  to  tell  it  to  your 
classmates.  Now  is  the  day  when  a  business  man 
should  speak  to  his  employees  and  tell  them  about 
salvation.  "  Behold,  now  is  the  accepted  time ;  be- 
hold, now  is  the  day  of  salvation." 

If  you  study  God's  ways,  you  will  notice  that 
He  is  always  planning,  by  His  providential  ar- 
rangements, to  bring  within  the  reach  of  our  in- 
fluence people  whom  we  may  turn  to  Christ.  Keep 
your  eyes  open  and  see.  Keep  your  ears  unstopped 
and  hear.  You  will  meet  a  man  in  the  street,  you 
will  travel  with  a  man  on  the  train,  and  God  has 
sent  him  to  you.  Someone  will  visit  in  your  home, 
or  be  in  your  employ.  God  is  bringing  him  within 
your  reach.  "Behold,  now  is  the  accepted  time; 
behold,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation." 

Do  you  remember  when  the  Government  sent 
astronomers  to  Africa  to  witness  the  transit  of 
Venus  ?  These  men  were  especially  chosen  and 
commissioned  to  watch  for  the  wonderful  spectacle 
in  the  heavens.  There  will  be  a  critical  moment, 
and  they  must  watch.     What  if  they  had  been  list- 


72  THE  ACCEPTED  TIME 

less  and  careless?  What  if  one  of  them  had  been 
reading  a  book?  What  if  another  of  them  had 
been  star-gazing  without  an  instrument?  Every- 
one must  have  his  eye  at  the  glass  watching  for  the 
moment.  Who  knov/s  but  that  the  critical  moment 
is  here  to  win  hundreds  of  people  to  Christ.  I 
have  been  a  member  of  a  certain  club  in  New  York 
for  years.  One  Sunday  I  went  there  for  dinner. 
I  had  been  preaching  in  one  of  the  churches.  One 
of  the  strong  business  men  of  the  city  came  in,  and 
when  we  met  I  asked  him  where  he  had  been. 
"  I  have  been  to  church/'  he  replied.  I  said, 
"  Where  ? "  and  he  told  me.  One  of  the  best 
known  men  in  the  country  was  the  minister.  I 
noticed  that  the  man  was  deeply  impressed,  and  I 
said  to  him:  "You  must  have  liked  the  sermon.'^ 
His  lips  trembled  and  I  saw  tears  on  his  cheek,  al- 
though he  is  not  an  emotional  man.  Then  he  said : 
"  When  Dr.  B.  closed  his  sermon,  if  he  had  asked, 
is  there  a  man  here  who  will  come  down  and  accept 
Christ,  I  would  have  risen  in  the  audience  and 
walked  down  the  length  of  the  church,  and  taken 
my  stand  for  Christ.  My  heart  went  like  a  trip- 
hammer. But  the  invitation  was  not  given." 
There  are  critical  moments  in  the  history  of  souls, 
and  we  must  be  watching  for  these  moments. 
"  Behold,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation.'' 

If  I  knew  how  you  could  become  rich  and  pros- 
perous, I  would  certainly  tell  you  about  it.  It  is 
a  strange  thing  that  when  we  know  how  men  may 


THE  ACCEPTED  TIME  73 

become  Christians,  and  have  their  sins  forgiven, 
our  lips  are  so  often  sealed.  It  is  easy  to  talk  about 
almost  everything  under  the  sun,  but  when  we 
begin  to  talk  about  Christ,  a  strange  expression 
comes  into  our  faces  and  our  voices  take  on  a 
forced  tone.  I  am  preaching  to  myself  about  this, 
as  well  as  to  my  brother  ministers  and  to  all  the 
Christians.  Why  do  we  not  talk  naturally  and 
urgently  about  Christ? 

I  plead  with  you  all  to  join  hands  with  me  and 
unite  your  faith  with  mine.  Let  us  go  out  and 
talk  to  men  urgently,  and  tell  them  that  "  now  is 
the  accepted  time."  I  never  mean  to  preach  un- 
kindly to  anyone.  I  would  not  preach  unkindly  to 
you  if  you  were  a  sinner.  I  do  not  expect  to. 
preach  with  fists  clenched.  I  remember  a  lesson 
that  I  learned  when  I  was  preaching  before  the 
professors  in  the  theological  seminary.  The  text 
of  my  sermon  was :  "  What  lack  I  yet  ? "  ISTo 
doubt  I  was  very  severe.  When  I  had  finished,  one 
of  the  old  professors,  a  very  kind  man,  said  gently 
to  me :  "  Brother  Chapman,  you  will  never  win 
your  way  in  the  ministry  like  that.  Don't  preach 
that  way.  Double  up  your  fists  at  men  and  they 
will  double  up  their  fists  at  you."  I  mean  to  speak 
kindly;  nevertheless,  I  shall  speak  directly  and 
sharply.  I  may  say  some  things  that  will  make 
you  cringe.  I  shall  say  some  things  that  will  un- 
cover hidden  sins,  but  I  promise  you  this,  that  I 


74  THE  ACCEPTED  TIME 

shall  say  them  with  a  warm  heart  and  sometimes 
with  a  sob. 

May  I  pause  to  say  to  the  ministers  that  we  are 
apt  to  forget  that  our  principal  business  is  winning 
souls.  We  think  that  we  must  build  up  the  saints. 
Ministers  must  be  on  the  watch  for  the  critical 
moment:  for  the  accepted  time  in  the  history  of 
souls.  Alas,  for  any  minister  who  is  not  watching 
thus.  When  we  were  in  Scotland,  I  had  a  little 
time  at  my  disposal,  and  I  used  it  in  reading  the 
lives  of  Scotch  ministers  of  different  denomina- 
tions. I  read  the  life  of  Thomas  Chalmers.  One 
day  Chalmers  went  to  visit  a  man  past  eighty.  He 
knew  that  he  was  not  a  Christian.  He  sat  and 
talked  with  him  a  long  time  with  never  a  word 
•  about  his  soul.  In  the  night  there  came  to  Dr. 
Chalmers  a  hurried  message  telling  him  that  the 
man  was  dead.  He  hurried  away  to  the  home. 
This  is  what  he  says :  "  I  made  my  way  to  the 
house  and  walked  up  and  down  the  room  with  tears. 
I  asked  the  man's  family  to  forgive  me,  and  then 
I  went  out  and  walked  in  the  woods  until  morning 
came.     Oh,  my  God,  if  I  had  only  been  true." 

A  man  came  into  my  study  in  Albany  and  said 
to  me :  "  Will  you  come  and  talk  to  a  young  man 
who  is  dying  ?  "  On  the  way  the  man  said  to  me : 
"  The  young  man  is  dying  of  consumption,  and  you 
must  not  speak  to  him  about  death."  I  sat  by  his 
bed  and  talked  to  him  for  some  time.  We  talked 
about  music,  in  which  he  was  interested.     We  dis- 


THE  ACCEPTED  TIME  75 

cussed  politics.  Then  the  visit  ended,  and  I  said 
good-bye.  I  can  feel  his  cold  hand  in  mine  even 
to  this  moment.  As  I  walked  to  the  door  and 
looked  back,  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  his  white  face 
and  deep-set  eyes.  They  searched  me  through  and 
through.  I  went  home,  but  early  the  next  morning 
I  went  back  to  the  sick  man's  house.  I  was  just 
entering  his  bedroom  when  someone  said  to  me: 
^'  He  died  yesterday,  an  hour  after  you  were  here.'' 
I  would  give  anything  if  I  had  spoken  to  him.  I 
do  not  know  whether  he  died  in  the  faith  or  not. 
"  E'ow  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the  day  of  salva- 
tion." Anyone  of  us  ministers  would  feel  compli- 
mented if  men  should  say:  He  is  like  Paul. 
Would  not  that  be  wonderful  ?  I  would  like  to  re- 
semble Paul  in  this.  It  is  said  that  he  went  from 
house  to  house  saying  to  men  and  women :  '^  I  be- 
seech you  to  be  reconciled  to  God."  It  is  said  that 
when  he  wrote  he  stained  his  manuscript  with  his 
tears.  If  some  of  us  should  begin  to  do  that  and 
should  go  from  house  to  house,  and  from  man  to 
man,  saying :  "  Behold,  now  is  the  accepted  time," 
how  long  do  you  think  it  would  be  before  this  city 
would  be  stirred  ?  It  is  a  pity  that  parents  forget 
that  this  is  the  "  day  of  salvation  "  for  their  chil- 
dren. There  are  men  and  women  here  who  would 
do  anything  for  their  children.  There  is  not  any- 
thing that  you  would  not  give  them,  education, 
books,  travel.  But  let  me  ask  you,  how  many  of 
you  parents  here  to-night  have  spoken  to  your  chil- 


76  THE  ACCEPTED  TIME 

^  dren  about  Jesus  Christ  ?  You  say  the  minister 
will  win  them,  or  the  Sunday  School  teacher,  or 
the  evangelist.  I  would  be  ashamed  if  I  thought 
anybody  in  this  world  had  more  influence  with  my 
children  than  I.  It  is  a  dreadful  thing  to  rear 
children  and  never  try  to  win  them  to  Jesus  Christ. 
There  trudged  along  a  Scotch  highway  years  ago 
a  little,  old-fashioned  mother.  By  her  side  was  her 
boy.  The  boy  was  going  out  into  the  world.  At 
last  the  mother  stopped.  She  could  go  no  farther. 
"  Robert,'^  she  said,  "promise  me  something?" 
"  What  ?  "  asked  the  boy.  "  Promise  me  some- 
thing ?  "  said  the  mother  again.  The  boy  was  as 
Scotch  as  his  mother,  and  he  said :  "  You  will  have 
to  tell  me  before  i  will  promise.''  She  said :  "  Robert, 
it  is  something  you  can  easily  do.  Promise  your 
mother?"  He  looked  into  her  face  and  said: 
"  Very  well,  mother,  I  will  do  anything  you  wish." 
She  clasped  her  hands  behind  his  head  and  pulled 
his  face  down  close  to  hers,  and  said :  "  Robert, 
you  are  going  out  into  a  wicked  world.  Begin 
every  day  with  God.     Close  every  day  with  God." 

\  Then  she  kissed  him,  and  Robert  Moffatt  says  that 
that  kiss  made  him  a  missionary.  And  Joseph 
Parker  says  that  when  Roh)ert  Moffatt  was  added 
to  the  Kingdom  of  God,  a  whole  continent  was 
added  with  him.  There  are  critical  times  in  the 
history  of  souls.  "  ITow  is  the  accepted  time;  now 
is  the  day  of  salvation."  If  you  are  a  father,  go 
home  this  evening  and  speak  to  your  boy.    If  your 


THE  ACCEPTED  TIME  77 

own  life  has  been  inconsistent,  tell  your  boy  so. 
You  will  win  him  to  Christ.  The  influence  of  a 
father  upon  a  boy  is  wonderful.  Fathers  and 
mothers,  why  don't  you  win  your  children  to 
Christ?  You  Christian  workers,  how  you  let  op- 
portunity slip!  .  An  opportunity  missed  is  a 
tragedy  in  one's  life. 

When  we  were  in  Belfast,  Ireland,  I  said  in  one 
of  the  afternoon  meetings — everybody  who  was  con- 
verted in  '57  and  '59  stand  up.  A  great  many 
white-haired  people  arose.  Afterwards  a  man 
came  to  the  inquiry  room  and  rose  for  prayer.  He 
said :  "  I  was  converted  in  '57,  and  I  had  two 
years  of  great  joy  in  the  Christian  life.  One  night 
God  came  to  me  and  said :  Go  and  speak  to  such  a 
one,  twelve  miles  away.  I  did  not  go.  He  called 
again,  and  I  did  not  go.  In  a  day  or  so,  a  letter 
came  to  me  telling  me  that  the  man  was  dead.  He 
died  unsaved."  There  was  an  agonizing  expres- 
sion in  the  man's  face  as  he  told  his  story.  It  was 
a  picture  of  sadness  that  no  artist  could  have 
painted.  With  trembling  lips,  he  said :  "  All  these 
years  since  that  time,  I  have  had  a  great  sorrow  in 
my  soul."  I  saw  him  drop  on  his  knees  and  heard 
him  sob  like  a  little  child.  "  Now  is  the  accepted 
time." 

In  Peoria,  111.,  a  man  said  to  Mr.  Wm.  Eey- 
nolds ;  "  Mr.  Keynolds,  why  have  you  not  asked 
me  to  be  a  Christian  ?  Did  you  know  I  was  not  a 
Christian  ? "      Mr.    Eeynolds    replied :     "  Yes,    I 


78  THE  ACCEPTED  TIME 

knew  you  were  not  a  Christian."  "  Well,"  said  the 
man,  "  did  you  care  ?  "  "  Yes,  I  have  cared,  all 
the  time  I  have  known  jou."  "  Why,  then,  did 
you  not  ask  me,"  said  the  man.  "  Well,"  said  Mr. 
Eeynolds,  "  if  you  will  come  to  my  office  now,  I 
will  spend  the  rest  of  the  day  with  you."  Then 
the  man  smiled  and  said :  "  I  was  converted  yes- 
terday." He  told  the  story  of  how  he  was  con- 
verted. He  entered  a  train  in  Chicago,  and  took 
the  only  unoccupied  seat  in  the  car.  Just  as  the 
train  was  pulling  out,  a  burly  sort  of  a  man  entered 
and  sat  alongside  him.  He  dropped  his  traveling 
bag,  and  took  out  a  book  and  began  to  read.  It 
was  the  Bible.  After  a  while  he  closed  the  Bible 
and  looked  out  of  the  window,  and  said :  "  What 
a  wonderful  day."  The  other  man  replied,  ^^  Very 
wonderful."  Then  the  big  man  saw  the  harvests 
in  the  fields,  and  said  to  his  companion :  "  You 
have  fine  harvests  out  here."  "  Yes,"  was  the 
reply,  "  very  wonderful."  Then  he  added :  "  Is 
not  God  good  to  give  such  harvests  as  these  ? " 
There  was  no  reply.  "  Why,  are  not  you  a  Chris- 
tian ? "  said  the  big  man.  "  l^o,  sir,"  was  the 
reply.  "Why,  how  could  you  not  be  a  Christian? 
Read  this."  And  with  this  he  opened  his  Bible 
and  began  to  read  him  some  verses.  Presently  he 
said  to  him :  "  Why  don't  you  bow  your  head  on 
the  back  of  the  seat  in  front,  and  let  me  pray  with 
you  ?  "  Telling  his  story,  the  man  said :  "  Before 
I  knew  it  my  head  was  bowed  and  his  arm  was 


THE  ACCEPTED  TIME  79 

around  me.  When  I  lifted  my  head,  I  was  a  saved 
man.  The  train  stopped  at  a  station,  and  the  man 
started  out.  He  was  almost  gone,  and  I  remem- 
bered that  I  did  not  know  his  name.  I  rushed  to  / 
the  car  door,  and  put  my  hands  to  my  lips  and 
shouted — ^  What  is  your  name  ? '  He  looked  over 
his  shoulder  and  said  one  word — ^  Moody.'  " 

It  is  said  of  Mr.  Moody  that  he  never  let  a  day 
go  by  without  speaking  to  somebody  about  Christ, 
He  went  to  bed  one  night  and  could  not  sleep. 
Twenty  minutes  after  eleven,  and  still  no  sleep.  A 
quarter  to  twelve,  and  he  was  still  awake.  He  had 
not  kept  his  promise.  He  arose  and  dressed  him- 
self, and  rushed  out  of  the  house.  As  he  turned 
the  corner  he  ran  into  a  man  who  said  something  . 
that  I  cannot  repeat  in  public.  Mr.  Moody  shouted 
out  to  him:  "Are  you  a  Christian?"  The  man 
said :  "  I^one  of  your  business.''  Mr.  Moody  said : 
"  Why,  yes,  it  is  my  business."  The  man  squared 
himself  up  and  said :  "  If  it  is  your  business,  then 
I  know  your  name.  Your  name  is  D.  L.  Moody." 
It  was  a  marvellous  thing  that  a  man  could  be  so 
true  to  Christ,  so  loyal  to  his  Master,  that  a  man 
who  met  him  in  the  dark  knew  who  he  was  when 
he  spoke  about  the  Saviour. 

I  do  not  know  whether  I  shall  ever  preach  again. 
I  must  speak  this  text  to  you,  with  the  greatest 
emphasis  of  which  I  am  capable.  "  Behold,  now 
is  the  accepted  time;  behold,  now  is  the  day  of 
salvation."    Why  don't  you  take  Him?    Tell  me, 


80  THE  ACCEPTED  TIME 

friends,  why  don't  you  take  Him  ?  Why  don't  you 
accept  my  Saviour?  An  old  woman  walked  down 
the  steps  of  a  Boston  police  station  and  caught  her 
heel  and  fell.  They  put  her  in  the  patrol  wagon 
and  took  her  to  the  hospital.  A  doctor,  hending 
over  her,  said :  "  She  will  not  live."  She  heard 
him  say  it,  and  spoke :  "  In  the  little  package  I 
brought  to  the  hospital  you  will  find  a  picture.  It 
4s  a  picture  of  my  boy.  He  ran  away  from  home 
in  Colorado,  and  I  sold  my  property  and  have 
searched  for  him  everywhere.  I  have  been  going 
to  police  stations  and  hospitals,  but  I  have  not 
found  him.  I  want  to  leave  this  picture  with  you. 
If  you  should  see  my  precious  boy,  tell  him  that 
there  were  two  in  this  world  who  never  gave  him 
up."  The  doctor  bent  over  her  and  said :  "  I^urse, 
she  is  going."  Then  the  nurse  stooped  down  and 
said :  "  Mother,  tell  me  the  names  of  the  two  so  that 
I  may  tell  him."  She  lifted  her  face,  lighted  al- 
ready with  the  light  of  heaven,  and  said  in  a  whis- 
per :  "  Tell  him  that  God  and  his  mother  never 
gave  him  up."     Then  she  was  gone. 

My  God  whose  love  fills  this  Book;  my  God 
who  gave  His  Son  to  die,  has  not  given  you  up  yet. 
Your  sweet  old  mother,  your  dear  father,  your 
wife,  your  friends,  your  minister,  none  of  them 
have  given  you  up.     Let  us  pray. 

Blessed  God,  our  Father,  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  our  Saviour,  we  pray  for  everybody  here 
who  is  unsaved.    We'  pray  especially  for  those  who 


THE  ACCEPTED  TIME  81 

have  said:  I  want  you  to  pray  for  me.  Oh,  God, 
help  them  all  and  bless  them.  Do  not  let  any  of 
us  be  indifferent  to  the  opportunities  sent  us  of 
God.  Bless  all  the  ministers  and  workers.  May 
there  fall  upon  us  such  a  blessing  as  we  have  never 
known  before.  Graciously  use  us  these  days,  in 
Jesus'  name.     Amen. 


yii 

"PKEPAEE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD" 

THE  subject  for  tlie  evening  has  been  an- 
nounced as  Preparedness,  I  might  well 
speak  to  you  to-night  concerning  pre- 
paredness for  the  nation,  but  I  have  a  greater  sub- 
ject than  that.  I  have  something  of  greater  im- 
portance to  say.  My  subject  deals  with  time  and 
eternity,  and  the  preparation  we  must  make  in 
time  for  eternity.  You  will  find  my  text  in  the 
Book  of  Amos  4:12:  "  Prepare  to  meet  thy  God." 
Before  you  sleep  this  evening  I  wish  that  you 
would  open  your  Bibles.  I  would  like  you  to  start 
with  the  first  words — "  In  the  beginning,  God !  " 
This  is  the  right  starting  point  for  a  man's  faith. 
Forget  God,  and  there  is  disaster  ahead.  Build 
your  plans  without  God  and  the  storms  will  over- 
take you.  Try  to  build  character  without  God  and 
defeat  is  certain.  "  In  the  beginning,  God!  "  ¥ow 
turn  to  the  last  Book  in  the  Bible,  to  Revelation 
20 :  12 :  "I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand 
before  God."  Start  with  the  one  and  end  with 
^the  other,  and  this  is  the  story  of  God's  dealings 
with  His  people.  We  see  Him  as  creator.  We 
behold  Him  as  the  ruler  of  nations.  We  see  Him 
as  the  judge  of  His  ancient  people.  We  behold 
Him  as  the  father  of  Jesus  Christ.    We  hear  Him 

82 


"PKEPAEE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD"        83 

crying  out  through  the  lips  of  His  Son  to  a  wicked 
generation.  At  last  we  see  Him  seated  upon  the 
Throne.  Time  is  being  finished.  The  Books  are 
being  opened,  and  the  dead,  small  and  great,  are 
standing  before  God.  I  wish  I  could  give  you  a'^ 
right  conception  of  God.  I  think  your  faces  would 
whiten  and  your  lips  tremble.  Stop  for  a  moment 
and  think  about  Him.  He  holds  the  winds  in  His 
hands,  yet  last  night  you  took  His  name  in  vain. 
In  the  hollow  of  His  hand  the  seas  beat  and  throb, 
yet  to-day  you  blasphemed  Him.  He  has  showered 
His  love  upon  you  ever  since  you  came  into  the 
world,  yet  you  have  resisted  Him.  Prepare  to 
meet  thy  God.  Prepare  to  meet  Him,  because  He 
is  God. 

We  read  in  the  Old  Testament — "  the  fool  hath 
said  in  his  heart,  there  is  no  God/'  Only  a  fool  .^ 
could  say  that.  Think  of  the  old  argument  of  ' 
cause  and  effect.  I  see  effects  all  about  me,  and  I 
must  go  back  to  the  great  "  First  Cause."  Then 
there  is  the  old  argument  of  design.  I  see  design 
everywhere  in  this  world.  The  seasons  coming  and 
going.  Stars  moving  in  their  courses.  The  world 
turning  on  its  axis.  How  suggestive  all  this  is. 
The  sun  rising  and  setting  with  such  precision  that 
the  scientists  can  tell  you  days,  weeks,  months,  and 
years  ahead,  the  exact  moment  of  rising  and  set- 
ting. Who  has  done  all  this?  The  little  flower 
that  lifts  its  head  at  your  feet,  how  perfectly 
formed  it  is.     The  bird  that  flies  above  your  head, 


84        "PREPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD" 

with  tlie  colours  of  the  rainbow  in  its  wings.  What 
artist  has  done  this?  Then  there  is  the  old  argu- 
ment suggested  by  the  Jonging  of  our  natures  for 
God.  If  you  go  to  the  savages  of  dark  lands, 
where  heathenism  reigns,  and  the  savage  in  his 
blindness  bows  down  to  wood  and  stone, — why  does 
he  do  this?  Because  he  longs  for  something 
greater  than  himself.  Then  look  at  these  enlight- 
ened times.  The  aspiration  takes  better  shape. 
The  longing  grows  to  a  higher  kind.  I  know  that 
this  longing  in  my  soul  for  God  and  eternal  life 
was  placed  there  by  Himself.  Just  as  the  fin  of 
the  fish  is  the  prophecy  of  the  water  in  which  it 
swims,  as  the  wing  of  the  bird  is  the  prophecy  of 
the  air  in  which  it  moves, — so  I  know  that  this 
longing  in  my  soul  is  an  unanswerable  argument 
for  his  existence.  I  know,  and  so  do  you,  that  God 
is.    Prepare  to  meet  thy  God. 

The  closest  fixed  star  is  so  far  away  that  if  you 
had  an  airship  and  should  attempt  to  reach  the  star, 
you  would  require  ages  and  ages  of  time.  If  you 
should  pay  but  a  small  amount  of  money  per  mile 
for  your  passage,  it  would  take  millions  upon  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  Yet  men  say  there  is  no  God. 
The  sun  sends  down  its  light,  and  has  been  sending 
light  and  heat  and  warmth  through  all  the  years 
and  ages  past.  When  we  estimate  the  distance  of 
the  sun  and  the  length  of  time  that  light  takes  to 
travel,  can  you  say  that  this  is  all  by  chance  ?  -N"o ! 
Hear  me !     Prepare  to  meet  thy  God. 


"PREPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD '^        85 

God  is  all  powerful.  I  can  take  a  cannonball  in 
my  hand  and  throw  it  a  little  distance.  Some  of 
these  strong  young  fellows  from  the  college  would 
far  surpass  me.  Driving  through  the  streets  one 
day,  a  friend  said  to  me :  "  Did  you  see  that  police- 
man ?  "  "  Well,  what  about  him  ?  "  I  answered. 
^'  He  is  the  champion  thrower  of  the  hammer  in 
all  the  world,''  said  my  friend.  "  It  was  he  who 
came  out  first  in  the  last  Olympian  contest."  But 
God  took  not  only  our  world,  but  countless  worlds 
like  it  and  tossed  them  into  space  as  I  might  blow 
a  bubble.    He  is  omnipotent. 

He  knows  everything.  You  may  deceive  me.  I" 
know  men  fairly  well,  but  you  could  deceive  me. 
You  cannot  deceive  God.  One  of  these  days  you 
will  face  Him.  One  of  these  days  your  record  will 
face  you.  One  of  these  days  you  must  answer  be- 
fore God  for  a  misspent  life.  He  knows  you 
through  and  through. 

God  is  ever;)^where.  Listen  while  I  read  this 
Scripture :  "  Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit  ?  ^ 
or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence?  If  I 
ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art  there :  if  I  make  my 
bed  in  hell,  behold,  thou  art  there.  If  I  take  the 
wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  sea;  even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead 
me,  and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me.  If  I  say. 
Surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me ;  even  the  night 
shall  be  light  about  me.''  You  cannot  get  away 
from  God. 


86        "PREPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD" 

One  day,  in  one  of  the  schools  of  Cliicago,  a  gen 
tleman  wanted  to  illustrate  a  point.  He  ^  drew  an 
eye  on  the  blackboard.  It  was  so  perfectly  drawn 
that  the  children  in  different  parts  of  the  room 
thought  that  the  eye  was  looking  straight  at  them. 
The  School  Board  insisted  that  the  eye  should  be 
erased.  The  children  were  becoming  nervous. 
Men  trample  God's  love  beneath  their  feet  and  go 
■their  own  way  in  life.  There  is  one  verse  of  the 
Bible  that  they  forget.  It  is  this:  "Thou  God 
'  seest  me."  He  saw  you  yesterday,  or  last  night, 
in  your  sin.  What  He  saw  was  written  in  a  book. 
Men  are  always  making  records.  I  saw  in  the 
British  Museum  a  piece  of  stone  the  size  of  my 
book.  They  told  me  that  it  was  six  thousand  years 
old  at  least.  Right  in  the  center  of  it  there  was 
the  print  of  a  bird's  foot.  When  the  stone  was 
\  soft,  six  thousand  years  ago,  the  bird  put  its  foot 
there  and  left  an  imprint.  Six  thousand  years  of 
record !  So  I  cry  out  to  you,  young  men  and  older 
men,  business  and  professional  men,  men  from  the 
shops,  women  of  society,  prepare  to  meet  thy  God. 
You  have  been  guilty  of  adultery,  you  of  drunk- 
enness, you  of  something  else.  ^'  I  saw  the  dead, 
small  and  great,  stand  before  God,  and  the  books 
were  opened."  Because  they  will  be  opened, — 
prepare  to  meet  thy  God. 

God  has  equipped  us  all  with  capital.  He  gave 
you  your  mind.  He  gave  you  your  hands,  your 
will,  your  heart.    He  gave  you  your  feet,  your  lips, 


"PREPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD"        87 

your  eyes.  You  must  give  an  account.  Have  your 
eyes  looked  upon  that  which,  is  evil?  Has  your 
heart  held  thoughts  that  were  impure?  Has  your 
mind  been  in  rebellion  against  Him?  Have  your 
hands  pushed  down  instead  of  lifted  up?  To  what 
houses  have  your  feet  taken  you?  Prepare — pre- 
pare to  meet  thy  God.  I  ask  you  to  prepare  be- 
cause you  may  meet  Him  sooner  than  you  think. 
I  have  no  desire  to  frighten  anyone,  but  I  would 
do  even  that  if  it  were  the  only  way.  I  do  not  wish 
to  appeal  to  your  emotions,  but  I  would  do  that  if 
it  were  the  only  way.  Perhaps  you  may  soon  face 
Him.  Y^ou  may  meet  Him  before  to-morrow 
morning.  How  do  you  know  that  you  can  keep  an 
engagement  at  nine  o'clock  to-morrow  morning? 
There  is  a  doctor  of  repute  beside  you.  Turn  and 
whisper  to  him.  How  about  it,  Doctor,  nine  o'clock 
in  the  morning  ?  I  know  what  his  answer  will  be. 
He  will  say:  Only  God  knows.  When  you  close 
your  eyes  in  sleep  to-night  your  vitality  will  drop, 
and  drop,  and  drop,  until  at  last  it  will  reach  the 
lowest  point.  Then  it  will  rise  again  until  the  day 
is  bom  and  you  awake — unless  God  should  touch 
you  with  His  finger.  I  don't  understand  why  men 
stay  away  from  God.  I  don't  understand  you 
young  college  men.  There  has  never  been  a  day 
since  colleges  were  established  when  trained  intel- 
lects were  at  such  a  premium.  Trained  minds  and 
strong  characters  can  do  more  to-day  than  ever  be- 
fore.    Yet  business  men,   professional   men,   and 


L-- 


88        "PREPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD" 

students,    too,    plunge    into    sin.      To-morrow    is 
eternity. 

I  stood  at  tlie  foot  of  mj  pulpit  and  a  man  came 
to  me  and  said :  "I  wish  that  you  might  have  such 
perfect  health  as  I  have.  ISTever  in  my  life  have 
I  had  a  headache,  never  a  pain,  never  have  I  called 
a  doctor  for  myself."  I  was  his  minister.  A  few 
months  after,  my  telephone  bell  summoned  me  to 
his  house.  An  excited  voice  said :  "  Hurry, 
A  ^  Hurry."  I  went,  to  find  his  daughter  alone  with 
^\  .Xr-  him,  the  rest  of  the  family  had  gone  away.  Her 
;*  ^1"  father  had  risen  saying  that  he  must  keep  an  early 
^"j^i  business  appointment.  "  Meet  me  in  the  breakfast 
"*  *■  -\  room,"  he  said.  In  fifteen  minutes  she  was  there, 
but  her  father  was  not.  She  climbed  the  stairway 
to  his  room  and  found  him  seated  in  his  chair  with 
a  newspaper  on  his  knees,  head  back,  eyes  shut. 
Never  an  ache  or  a  pain!  Never  a  doctor!  Fif- 
teen minutes'  warning !  Dead !  But  you  young 
men  say :  How  old  was  he  ?  Past  sixty.  We  were 
seated  in  a  hotel  in  Australia  and  were  resting  for 
the  evening,  when  a  quick  knock  came  at  the  door. 
I  took  a  cable  from  the  boy,  and  got  the  code  book 
and  deciphered  this :  "  Charles  died  to-day.  Sick 
two  days."  He  was  dead.  My  nephew.  A  prom- 
ising athlete,  trained  in  a  military  school.  Never 
sick  a  day  in  his  life.  Not  a  man  in  the  college 
could  surpass  him  in  physical  strength.  Gone  in 
two  days.     Prepare  to  meet  thy  God. 

There  is  only  one  way  to  be  prepared.     Science 


"PKEPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD"        89 

has  a  fine  ministry  in  the  world,  but  it  does  not  get 
you  ready  for  eternity.  Philosophy  is  interesting 
as  a  study.  It  is  wonderful  in  its  teachings,  but  it 
stops  this  side  of  eternity.  Infidelity  seems  to  be 
all  right  when  your  health  is  fine,  your  friends 
many,  and  your  family  circle  unbroken,  but  when 
your  heart  aches,  and  your  baby  dies,  and  you  get 
a  telegram  saying:  Mother  is  dead,  or — Father  has 
gone, — then  all  the  infidelity  in  the  world  will 
mock  you. 

Let  me  say  a  word  to  you  men.  I  want  to  say 
that  if  you  turn  away  from  God's  only  means  of 
preparation,  you  miss  the  best  for  this  life.  There 
is  only  one  way  to  prepare.  What  is  it  ?  Believe 
on  tlie  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  Turn  from  your  sins ! 
Accept  Him !  A  friend  of  mine  was  going  to 
preach  in  a  country  village.  One  of  the  officers  of 
the  church  met  him,  and,  as  they  walked  along  an 
old-fashioned  board  walk,  my  friend  stopped  and 
said :  "  What  is  that  ?  "  There  came  from  the  win- 
dow of  a  house  near  the  board  walk  an  agonizing 
cry  of  a  man.  As  they  listened,  they  heard  the 
voice  say:  "  Oh,  Jesus,  can't  you  help  me?  "  The 
church  officer  said :  ^'  The  man  who  lives  there  is 
dying,  and  he  has  rejected  God  all  his  life.  He 
has  led  scores  of  our  boys  and  girls  away  from  the 
faith  of  their  fathers.  He  is  dying  in  infidelity." 
And  the  cry  came  again :  "  Oh,  Jesus,  can't  you 
help  me  ?  "  Every  minister  in  the  community  was 
trying  to  help  him.     Many  of  the  Christians  were 


90        '^PREPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD" 

interested  in  him.  He  could  not  find  the  way. 
The  last  thing  they  heard  him  say  was  the  sen- 
tence :  "  Oh,  Jesus,  can't  you,  can't  you  ?  "  Pre- 
pare to  meet  thy  God. 

I  do  not  want  you  to  think  that  God  is  other 
than  just,  or  that  He  is  other  than  loving.  It  is 
true  that  ever  since  you  came  into  the  world  He 

.  has  been  seeking  you.  Jesus  Christ  came  all  the 
way  to  Calvary  for  you.  He  is  seeking  you  now. 
Listen !  He  is  seeking  you  now.  Don't  reject  him. 
Hear  this  text  again :  ^^  I  saw  the  dead,  small  and 
great,  stand  before  God."  Driving  swiftly  down 
the  streets  of  one  of  our  western  cities,  a  man  lost 
control  of  his  horses.  A  courageous  man,  spring- 
ing from  the  sidewalk,  brought  the  horses  to  a 
standstill  and  saved  a  man's  life.  By  a  strange 
coincidence   the   man   whose   life   was   saved   was 

%  charged  with  murder.  The  trial  judge  was  the 
man  who  had  saved  him.  Later  the  trial  came  on. 
The  lawyers  had  made  their  pleas.  The  judge  had 
charged  the  jury.  They  had  reached  a  verdict,  and 
just  as  the  judge  turned  to  speak  to  him,  the 
prisoner  arose  and  said :  "  Your  honour,  I  don't 
think  you  know  me."  The  judge  said :  "  Answer 
my  question.  Have  you  anything  to  say  why  a 
sentence  of  death  should  not  be  passed  upon  you  ?  " 
Stretching  out  his  arms,  the  prisoner  said  again: 
"  I  don't  think  you  remember  me.  I  am  the  man 
you  saved.  Don't  you  remember?  Have  mercy! 
mercy !  "     The  judge  leaned  forward  with 


"PREPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD"        91 

tears  on  his  cheeks  and  said :  "  Yes,  I  do  remem- 
ber you.  I  have  known  you  ever  since  you  came 
before  me,  but  then  I  was  your  saviour,  now  I  am 
your  judge.  I  must  sentence  you  to  die."  And 
to-day  He  is  your  Saviour,  tears  in  His  eyes,  blood 
upon  His  brow,  scourges  upon  His  back,  agony  in 
His  heart,  saying :  "  Turn  ye,  Turn  ye,  for  why 
will  you  die.'' 

I  had  read  the  funeral  service  in  a  beautiful 
home,  when  the  undertaker  came  to  the  door  and 
said ;  "  Will  all  the  friends  kindly  retire.  The 
members  of  the  family  are  coming  in."  The 
daughter  of  the  home  came  in  leading  her  father. 
The  mother  was  lying  in  the  coffin.  The  old  man 
bent  forward  and  said  to  the  wife  who  had  jour- 
neyed with  him  all  the  years :  "  Good-bye.  I  will 
soon  see  you."  The  daughter  said  it  after  him, 
and  two  or  three  of  the  boys  said  it.  The  eldest 
boy  was  a  drunkard.  He  stood  inside  the  door  with 
the  hot  tears  running  down  his  cheeks.  I  walked 
over  to  him  and  said :  "  Tom,  come  and  say  good- 
bye to  your  mother."  Partly  from  weakness,  and 
partly  because  he  was  under  the  influence  of  drink, 
he  staggered  forward.  But  I  never  heard  a  boy 
cry  like  that.  Such  sobs  as  came  from  his  heart! 
Over  and  over  he  kept  saying:  "  Mother,  Mother!  " 
His  sister  stepped  forward  and  said :  '^  Tom,  don't 
take  on  so.  Mother  has  gone  to  Heaven,  and  you 
will  soon  see  her."  He  threw  one  arm  around  my 
shoulder  and  the  other  around  hers,  and  cried  out: 


92        "PKEPARE  TO  MEET  THY  GOD" 

"  Oh,  my  God !  I  am  not  going.  I  am  not  going." 
Prepare  to  meet  thy  God.  Acknowledge  your 
sins.  Accept  Him  as  your  Saviour.  Confess  Him 
before  men.  Follow  Him  faithfully.  One  day 
you  will  meet  God,  and  will  hear  His  welcome — 
"  Well-done." 


YIII 
LOSING  AND  FlWDmG  JESUS 

I  HOPE  that  my  subject  will  prove  practical 
and  helpful.  It  is:  Losing  and  Firiding 
JesiosI  There  are  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  people  who  start  to  follow  Him  and  then,  for 
some  reason,  they  are  turned  aside.  Perhaps,  like 
Demas,  the  pleasures  of  the  world  entrance  them. 
At  any  rate,  they  lose  Jesus.  There  are  some  in 
this  audience  now  to  whom  the  subject  applies. 
My  text  is  found  in  Luke  2 :  46 — ^'  After  three 
days  they  found  him." 

I  tell  you  the  hopeful  thing  about  it  at  the  very 
start.  We  may  lose  Him,  but  He  does  not  lose  us.  ^- 
He  is  not  far  away,  and  if  we  are  willing  to  seek 
after  Him,  He  will  surely  be  found  of  us.  After 
three  days  they  found  Him !  This  text  brings  first 
of  all  an  Old  Testament  picture  before  us.  Turn  ^, 
to  the  Book  of  Exodus,  the  twelfth  chapter.  It  is 
night.  The  night  of  doom.  Homes  are  in  danger. 
The  Passover  lamb  has  been  slain.  The  blood  has 
been  collected  in  a  basin.  A  bunch  of  hyssop  has 
been  dipped  in  the  blood  and  the  blood  sprinkled 
on  the  posts  of  the  door,  for  the  word  of  God  was, 
"  When  I  see  the  blood,  I  will  pass  your  door." 
'Now  turn  from  the  Old  Testament  to  the  ISTew,  to  ,. 

the    words    in    I    Corinthians    5 :  7 — "  Christ    our 
93 


94  LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS 

passover !  "  I  know,  as  you  do,  that  the  Old  Testa- 
ment loses  its  power  over  us  unless  we  put  Christ 
into  it,  or  unless  we  find  the  Christ  who  has  always 
been  there.  So  the  Old  Testament  passover  links 
us  to  the  New  Testament  passover,  our  Lord  Him- 

4  self.  Then  turn  to  Matthew  26 :  18,  and  read  the 
latest  mention  of  the  passover  in  the  Gospel.  The 
disciples  have  come  to  the  Master,  saying:  Where 
shall  we  eat  the  feast  ?  And  the  Master  said :  "  Go 
into  the  city  to  such  a  man  and  say  unto  him,  the 
Master  saith,  my  time  is  at  hand;  I  will  keep  the 
passover  at  thy  house  with  my  disciples.''  Oh! 
this  was  a  memorable  keeping  of  the  feast.  Judas 
was  present,  and  the  Master  said,  "  One  of  you  shall 
betray  me."  They  began  to  say :  ^^  Lord,  is  it  I  ?  " 
and  Jesus  answered,  "  It  is  he  who  dippeth  in  the 
dish  with  me."  Then  Judas  turned  to  go  out,  and 
Jesus  said :  "  What  thou  doest,  do  quickly."  Just 
here  a  suggestive  sentence  is  found.  ^'  It  was 
night."    I  stop  long  enough  to  say  that  when  a  man 

^  turns  his  back  upon  Jesus,  it  is  always  night.  You 
cannot  drive  back  the  darkness  and  the  gloom. 
Turn  your  back  on  Jesus,  and  just  so  surely  as 
you  do  the  darkness  will  begin  to  settle  about  you. 
It  was  a  memorable  feast,  too,  for  this  reason. 
It  says  that  when  they  had  sung  an  hymn,  they 
went  out.  Here  is  a  new  picture  of  Jesus.  We 
^have  seen  Him  under  many  different  circumstances 
and  conditions.  We  have  seen  Him  at  the  mar- 
riage feast  in   Galilee,  when  the  conscious  water 


LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS  95 

saw  its  God  and  blushed  into  wine.  We  have  seen 
Him  stop  the  funeral  procession  near  Nain  and 
take  the  boy  bj  the  hand  and  give  him  back  to  his 
mother.  We  have  seen  Him  with  His  disciples 
about  Him,  teaching  them  to  pray.  We  have  seen 
Him  sleeping  in  a  boat.  But  this  is  the  only  time 
in  His  earthly  ministry  when  we  find  Him  singing.  ^'- 
I  wish  I  might  have  heard  Him.  I  heard  Patti 
sing  once,  and  I  heard  my  mother  sing  many  times. 
I  know  what  sweet  singing  is.  But  to  have  heard 
Jesus,  what  a  joy  that  would  have  been!  Just  to 
see  His  face  light  up.  His  eyes  glisten,  and  His 
lips  tremble  as  He  sang.  When  they  had  sung  an 
hymn  they  went  out! 

It  will  be  well  to  know  something  about  the  im- 
portance of  the  celebration  of  the  passover  in  the 
estimation  of  the  Jewish  people.  A  month  before 
the  feast,  special  preparations  were  made.  Roads  *' 
were  made  level  and  easy  to  travel.  Bridges  over 
streams  were  strengthened.  As  the  time  of  the 
feast  drew  near,  there  was  great  excitement.  The 
night  before  the  passover,  every  Jewish  house  was 
cleaned  thoroughly,  and  when  the  last  bit  of  clean- 
ing was  done,  the  head  of  the  house  said  something 
like  this :  "  And  now,  if  there  is  any  leaven  in  this 
house  (leaven  in  Jewish  thought  meant  the  prin- 
ciple of  evil)  it  is  here  against  my  will."  Would 
not  that  be  a  fine  thing  for  a  Christian  to  say  when 
he  is  asking  God  to  search  his  heart?  When  he 
realizes  that  he  has  lost  power  and  that  he  is  in 


96  LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS 

spiritual  darkness,  let  him  say:  Search  me,  oh, 
God,  and  try  my  thoughts,  and  see  if  there  he  any 
wicked  way  in  me.  And  then  let  him  add :  '^  If 
there  is  anything  in  my  life  that  is  displeasing  to 
Thee,  it  is  here  against  my  will.'' 

In  the  morning,  the  people  who  were  waiting  for 
the  passover  were  awakened  suddenly,  as  the  new 
day  was  born,  by  the  sound  of  trumpets.  Then 
they  sang  together  the  113th  Psalm — ^'  Praise  ye 
the  Lord.  Praise,  O  ye  servants  of  the  Lord,  praise 
the  name  of  the  Lord.  Blessed  be  the  name  of  the 
Lord  from  this  time  forth  and  for  evermore.  From 
the  rising  of  the  sun  unto  the  going  down  of  the 
same  the  Lord's  name  is  to  be  praised."  The 
whole  city  sang  it.  Can  you  imagine  the  power 
and  the  thrill  of  it? 

We  know  of  three  persons  who  were  present  at 
the  celebration  of  the  passover  mentioned  in  our 
Scripture.  They  were  a  father  and  a  mother  and 
a  boy  of  twelve.  Of  all  the  people  in  the  city  that 
day,  the  boy  of  twelve  alone  knew  the  depth  of  the 
meaning  of  the  passover  feast.  He  knew  about  the 
slain  lamb.  He  knew  about  the  sprinkled  blood. 
He  knew  about  the  ascriptions  of  praise  to  Je- 
hovah. So  these  three  kept  the  feast  together. 
When  the  day  is  finished  and  they  are  ready  to 
start  home,  messages  of  farewell  are  spoken.  They 
journey  with  the  crowd,  and,  as  they  go,  they  talk 
of  the  joy  of  the  occasion.  Suddenly,  the  mother 
of  the  boy  turns  to  her  husband  to  say :    "  Where 


LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS  97 

is  Jesus  ? "  Their  faces  whiten  and  they  begin  to 
search  for  him.  Now,  I  want  you  to  notice  this 
very  significant  expression,  "  and  they  sought  Him 
among  their  kinsfolk  and  acquaintance  "  but  could 
not  find  Him.  Three  days  they  sought  Him,  and 
at  last  they  make  their  way  back  to  the  city  where 
they  kept  the  feast,  and  here  they  find  Jesus,  sit- 
ting in  the  presence  of  the  wise  men  asking  and 
answering  questions.  Now  come  back  to  my  text — 
"  After  three  days  they  found  Him.''  Losing 
Jesus  and  finding  Jesus! 

In  order  to  find  Jesus,  it  is  necessary  to  walk 
with  Him.  It  is  possible  for  any  of  us  to  walk 
with  Jesus.  Put  that  down  and  never  forget  it! 
Enoch  walked  with  God.  Dr.  Andrew  Bonar  of 
Scotland  used  to  say  that  they  walked  so  long  to- 
gether, and  climbed  so  high  in  their  journey,  that 
at  last  the  Lord  turned  to  Enoch  and  said: 
"  Enoch,  we  are  much  nearer  heaven  than  earth. 
Why  not  pass  in  now  ? "  And  the  doors  swung 
open  and  they  passed  through  the  gates  into  the 
city.  The  disciples  at  Emmaus  walked  with  Jesus. 
They  did  not  know  Him,  but  as  they  walked  and 
talked  with  Him,  suddenly  their  hearts  burned 
within  them.  They  knew  that  there  was  a  mar- 
vellous person  with  them,  but  they  could  not  quite 
interpret  who  he  was.  As  He  sat  at  meat  and 
blessed  the  food,  there  was  something  in  the  way 
He  lifted  His  hands  or  bowed  His  head — and  they 
knew  Him.    We  can  find  Jesus  in  just  such  simple 


98  LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS 

ways  as  this.  Walk  with  Him  and  talk  with  Him 
and  you  will  know  Him.  The  more  you  talk  with 
Him  and  about  Him,  the  better  you  will  know 
Him.     If  you  have  lost  Him  you  can  find  Him. 

Then  do  the  thing  that  he  wants  you  to  do,  and 
suddenly  you  will  face  Him  and  He  will  face  you. 
You  can  find  Jesus  by  doing  His  will.  Probably 
the  sweetest  thing  you  know  about  your  father  is 
that  he  walked  with  Jesus  and  talked  with  Him. 
It  is  not  because  he  was  rich  that  you  remember 
him.  You  remember  him  because  he  walked  with 
the  Master.  Let  me  paint  a  picture  for  you.  It 
is  a  picture  of  an  aged  man  who  has  been  in  the 
habit  of  attending  church  all  his  life.  Now  he  is 
an  old  man,  walking  with  feeble  step,  yet  every 
Sunday  morning  he  makes  his  way  to  the  house 
of  God.  He  prefers  to  walk  when  the  weather  is 
fine,  although  he  has  a  thoughtful  boy  who  is  ready 
to  take  him  in  a  car.  He  faces  the  preacher  at  the 
front,  although  he  can  hear  very  little  of  what  is 
said.  Many  persons  would  think  that  a  reason  for 
^staying  at  home.  He  loves  to  worship  God  in  the 
church.  The  few  words  that  he  hears  cheer  him 
mightily.  As  he  meets  his  pastor  at  the  door,  the 
old  man  clasps  his  hand  and  says :  "  I  know  that 
my  Redeemer  liveth !  "  *^  So  you  heard  me  say  that, 
did  you  ? "  said  the  pastor.  "  Yes,"  said  the  old 
man,  "  I  heard  you  say  that,  and  it  made  my  heart 
bum."  Faintly  he  had  caught,  too,  what  the  min- 
ister was  saying  about  family  worship.  He  thought 


LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS  99 

they  were  taking  account  of  how  many  observed 
family  worship,  and  he  raised  his  hand  as  high  as 
possible  and  held  it  up  as  long  as  he  could.  Yes, 
he  was  saying  to  himself,  I  have  had  family  wor- 
ship ever  since  I  have  had  a  home,  and  I  have 
walked  with  Jesus  all  the  days  of  my  life.  Is 
there  anything  more  beautiful  than  this?  It  is  in 
these  simple  ways  men  find  Jesus. 

The  sweetest  thing  you  know  about  your  mother 
is  this — she  walked  with  Jesus.  Do  you  remem- 
ber when  sickness  came  and  your  brother  died? 
The  light  of  life  went  out  of  your  home,  and  your 
father  and  mother  came  back  from  the  cemetery 
and  sat  by  the  fireside.  For  a  long  while  neither 
of  them  spoke.  Then  at  last  one  of  them  said: 
"  The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away.'' 
And  the  other  promptly  answered :  "  Blessed  be 
the  name  of  the  Lord."  Listen  to  me !  It  is  pos- 
sible to  walk  with  Jesus  in  the  storm,  to  walk  with 
Him  in  the  gloom,  to  walk  with  Him  when  the 
stars  are  dead  and  the  moon  refuses  to  shine. 

It  is  a  sad  thing  to  walk  without  Him.  The  sad 
part  of  it  is  that  you  never  quite  miss  Him  until 
the  crisis  comes.  Oh,  you  can  go  along  with  a 
jaunty  step  when  your  health  is  perfect,  with 
a  laugh  and  a  cheer  when  everybody  is  applauding 
you.  You  think  you  can  do  without  Him  when 
your  bank  account  is  abundant,  but  when  the  day 
is  dreary  and  the  night  is  long,  then  to  walk  with- 
out Him,  ah,  that  is  the  tragedy  of  life !    To  walk 


100         LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS 

without  Him  when  temptation  and  trial  come !  Oh, 
if  I  could  only  make  plain  to  you  what  this  means ! 
All  of  us  need  Him  more  sorely  than  words  can 
express.  If  we  have  missed  step  with  Jesus  and 
have  lost  Him  any  way  out  of  our  lives,  let  us  go 
back  to  Him  to-day. 

Mr.  Alexander  and  I  were  in  Kentucky  at  an 
old  mountain  school  for  whites.  As  I  was  speak- 
ing to  the  students,  I  noticed  in  the  audience  a 
woman  dressed  in  deep  mourning.  Afterwards  I 
spoke  to  her  and  she  told  me  that  her  heart  was 
broken.  She  said :  "  I  had  one  boy,  and  he  was 
drowned  the  past  summer.  He  was  driving  down 
the  country  road  in  a  buggy  with  his  sweetheart, 
and  the  horse  took  fright  and  upset  the  buggy  in 
a  narrow  road.  They  were  thrown  into  the  river, 
where  there  was  a  swift  current.  The  horse  and 
harness  and  wheels  and  buggy-top  all  became  en- 
'  tangled.  My  boy  saved  his  sweetheart,  but  he  him- 
self was  drowned.  I  was  sitting  alone  in  my  room 
while  they  were  dragging  the  river  for  him.  My 
dear  old  mountain  mother,  my  boy's  grandmother, 
came  to  see  me,  and  she  said :  ^  Have  you  prayed  ? ' 
I  was  too  heartbroken  to  pray,  but  we  got  down 
on  our  knees  and  my  mother  prayed  with  me.  I 
had  one  great  concern,  now  that  he  was  dead.  I 
was  afraid  that  when  they  dragged  the  river  the 
hooks  might  catch  his  precious  face  and  mar  him. 
My  mother  held  me  in  her  arms  as  if  I  were  a 
baby,   and  we  rocked  back  and  forth  in  the  old- 


LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS         101 

fasiiioned  chair  and  prayed  together — ^  Blessed 
God,  when  this  boy's  precious  body  is  found,  don't 
let  the  hooks  catch  in  his  face.  Let  it  be  in  his  gar- 
ments, or  in  his  belt.'  And  do  you  know,  sir,  that 
before  I  had  stopped  sobbing,  I  heard  a  noise  in  the 
yard,  and  I  ran  to  open  the  door.  There  was  his 
body,  and  the  hooks  had  caught  in  his  belt."  I 
have  learned  that  while  you  can  get  along  without 
Christ  when  the  sun  is  shining,  you  cannot  get 
along  without  Him  when  your  heart  is  broken.  It 
is  a  sad  thing  to  walk  without  Him. 

They  sought  Him  among  their  kinsfolk  and  ac- 
quaintance and  could  not  find  Him.  Is  not  this  a 
pathetic  thing?  Oh,  it  is  sad  indeed  for  a  boy  to 
search  for  Christ  in  his  mother  and  not  find  Him. 
For  a  boy  to  come  to  the  Tabernacle  and  hear  the 
songs  and  sermons,  and  then  say :  ''  I  know  where 
I  will  go,  I  will  go  home  and  ask  my  mother  about 
Jesus."  And  then,  not  to  find  Him !  Wliat  a  tragedy 
that  is !  For  a  child  to  say :  ^^  I  will  go  out  of  this 
building  and  go  back  to  my  father  and  speak  to 
him  and  find  Jesus."  Then  not  to  find  Him !  The 
other  day,  in  the  Art  Institute  in  Chicago,  a 
mother  was  walking  carelessly  among  the  pictures. 
She  stopped  with  her  little  child  before  a  great 
painting,  and  somebody  said :  "  That  is  Jesus." 
The  little  child,  looking  up  to  her  mother,  said: 
"  Who  is  Jesus  ?  "  And  the  mother,  catching  the 
child's  hand,  said :  "  Jesus  was  a  man.  Come 
along!" 


102         LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS 

There  is  another  story,  and  it  is  this:  A  plain 
little  home  had  undecorated  walls,  except  for  a  very- 
poor  print  of  Christ  before  Pilate.  The  picture 
showed  Him  standing  there  with  head  bowed,  and 
hands  bound.  A  little  child,  playing  about  the 
room,  said:  "Who  is  that?"  "Why,  my  dear," 
answered  the  mother,  "  that  is  Jesus."  "  And 
what   did   Jesus   say  ? "    asked   the   child,   simply. 

,The  mother  took  her  in  her  arms  and  held  her 
close.  This  is  what  He  said :  "  Suffer  little  chil- 
dren to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not." 
Happy  is  the  mother  who  can  help  her  child  to  find 
Jesus ! 

Oh,  it  is  a  sad  thing  to  try  to  find  Jesus  in  any- 
one whom  we  trust  and  not  to  find  Him.     It  is  sad 

*to  seek  for  Jesus  in  a  minister  and  not  find  Him. 
I  was  preaching  in  one  of  the  Pennsylvania  cities, 
when  a  reporter  came  to  a  young  minister  and 
asked  about  myself.  "  How  do  you  like  him  ?  " 
The  young  minister  answered :  "  I  don't  like  him 
at  all.  I  have  not  the  slightest  interest  in  him." 
Well,  I  don't  wonder  that  people  say  that  about 
me.  But  I  went  to  this  young  minister  and  said 
to  him :  "  Why  did  you  say  that  to  the  reporter  ?  " 
He  was  a  thorough  gentleman,  and  he  answered: 
"  Well,  I  will  tell  you.  I  don't  believe  what  you 
preach.  I  took  a  fellowship  in  philosophy  in  the 
university  where  I  graduated.  I  have  studied  a 
great  deal,  and  I  cannot  agree  with  you.  I  stand 
with  the  critics.     I  cannot  accept  the  authority  of 


LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS         103 

Christ.  Jesus  was  a  marvellous  man,  but  I  cannot 
accept  His  deity.''  I  said  to  the  young  minister  in 
the  friendliest  way  I  could :  "I  never  took  a  fel- 
lowship in  philosophy,  and  I  have  been  a  very  busy 
man,  but  I  have  found  Jesus,  and  I  know  Him  ^ 
well.  I  have  known  Him  under  all  circumstances 
and  conditions.  As  for  this  book,  I  look  into  it 
and  tell  you  that  if  you  read  it  merely  with  a  crit- 
ical eye,  it  will  shut  itself  up  like  a  sensitive  plant, 
but  if  you  go  at  it  with  love,  it  will  open  up  like 
a  rose."  "  Tell  me  something  more,"  said  the 
young  minister.  So  I  went  on.  I  gave  him  a  text 
to  preach  from.  I  said  to  him:  Preach  this — 
"  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
me."  He  took  that  text  and  preached  with  tears, 
and  a  hundred  people  in  his  church  wrote  or  tele- 
phoned him  that  it  was  wonderful.  It  was  the  first 
time  anybody  had  thanked  him  for  preaching.  It  i 
is  a  sad  thing  to  seek  for  Jesus  in  a  minister  and 
not  find  Him. 

All  the  time  without  Him  is  lost  time.  One  day^' 
to  lose  Him!  Three  days  to  find  Him!  AU  the 
time  without  Him  is  lost  time.  You  might  as  well 
make  up  your  mind  to  this  now — that  your  time  is 
not  worth  anything  to  you  or  to  God  if  you  are 
without  Jesus.  Come  back  and  keep  step  with 
Him. 

They  found  Him  where  they  lost  Him.     Where  *" 
did  you  lose  Him  ?     Somebody  will  say  in  a  whis- 
per :  "  I  know  where  I  lost  Him.    I  lost  Him  when 


104         LOSING  AND  FINDING  JESUS 

I  was  impatient  in  mj  home  and  did  not  ask  for 
forgiveness.  I  was  indignant  and  unfair  to  the 
children,  and  did  not  confess  it.  I  was  harsh  with 
my  servants,  or  unfair  in  my  business  dealings. 
In  that  way  I  lost  Him."  Others  will  say :  "  I 
lost  Him  at  the  dance,  or  at  the  card  table.  I  lost 
Him  when  I  lifted  drink  to  my  lips.  I  lost  Him 
when  I  stopped  studying  this  Book.  I  lost  Him 
when  I  was  too  busy  to  pray." 

'  Oh,  well,  it  does  not  make  any  difference  where 
you  lost  Him.  Come  back  and  find  Him,  and  you 
will  find  Him  with  the  same  great-hearted  love. 
You  will  find  Him  with  arms  outstretched.  You 
will  find  Him  saying :  "  I  will  restore  the  years 
that  the  canker  worm  has  eaten."  Come  back! 
Come  back !  God  help  you  to  do  it !  He  will,  if 
you  will  trust  Him. 


IX 

THKEE  GREAT  THINGS 

I  AM  speaking  to-night  of  three  great  things. 
The  text  is  in  II  Samuel  12:13— "And 
David  said  unto  Nathan:  I  have  sinned 
against  the  Lord.  And  Nathan  said  nnto  David: 
The  Lord  also  hath  put  away  thy  sin." 

This  is  one  of  the  saddest  stories  of  the  Old 
Testament.  It  makes  our  faces  flush  hot  with 
shame.  It  is  a  sad  thing  to  be  disappointed  in  a 
man,  as  in  this  case  to  find  a  man  who  on  one  side 
is  capable  of  writing  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  and 
on  the  other  side  capable  of  committing  a  great  sin. 
But  this  is  the  way  of  sin.  It  is  dark  and  insidious. 
The  explanation  in  David^s  case  is  not  far  to  seek. 
It  was  not  that  he  had  a  bad  heart,  but  that  he 
looked  upon  sin  and  sin  carried  him  away.  There 
is  an  old  saying  that  runs  like  this :  "  The  idle 
brain  is  the  devil's  workshop."  And  there  is  an- 
other saying,  equally  old  and  equally  true :  "  The 
idle  brain  always  tempts  the  devil."  Your  strong- 
est temptation  never  came  to  you  when  you  were 
busy.  It  was  when  your  hands  were  not  reaching 
out  to  help  others,  when  you  were  sitting  in  idle- 
ness, while  others  were  moving.  David  was  on  the 
roof  of  his  palace,  and  he  was  tempted  to  sin.  But 
the  temptation  itself  was  not  the  cause  of  David's 

105 


106  THREE  GREAT  THmGS 

fall.  Sometimes  when  we  have  been  in  holy  places, 
even  on  our  knees,  sinful  thoughts  have  flashed 
through  us.  The  purest  and  best  people  have  said 
this.  This  again  is  the  way  of  sin.  David's 
trouble  was  this:  He  looked  at  sin  a  second  time, 
and  then  a  third  and  a  fourth,  and  very  soon 
the  man  who  was  strong  enough  to  do  marvellous 
.  things  for  God  trembled  and  fell.  "  Let  him  that 
thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed  lest  he  fall.'' 

There  is  one  great  text  in  the  Bible  that  is  in- 
tended especially  for  those  who  are  sorely  tempted. 
It  is  this :  ^'  Resist  the  devil  and  he  will  flee  from 
you."  Your  trouble  was  not  merely  that  you  were 
tempted.  Rather  the  trouble  was  that  when  you 
were  tempted  you  did  not  immediately  turn  to  God 
for  deliverance. 

After  David's  sin,  God  sent  Nathan  to  him  to 
speak  to  him.  You  remember  what  Nathan  said: 
There  was  a  certain  man  who  had  nothing  save  one 
little  ewe  lamb.  I  imagine  as  the  story  went  on 
David's  eyes  began  to  flash,  and  his  fingers  to 
twitch,  and  as  Nathan  finished  his  story :  "  They 
took  the  ewe  lamb  and  put  it  to  death,"  David  the 
King  sprang  to  his  feet  and  said :  "  The  man  who 
would  do  that  must  die."  Then  Nathan  came  out 
with  his  startling  words :  "  Thou  art  the  man," 
and  David  stood  before  Nathan  a  convicted  man. 
With  a  cry  of  his  soul,  he  said :  "  I  have  sinned 
against  the  Lord,"  and  Nathan  promptly  replied: 
"  The  Lord  also  hath  put  away  thy  sin." 


THREE  GREAT  THINGS  107 

There  are  three  great  things  here  to  be  con- 
sidered. 

First,  a  great  sin.    It  was  a  great  sin  because  he  i 
knew  better.     It  was  a  great  sin  because  it  was  "*'^''*^'*""''^'- 
against    his    position    as    a    king.      When    David 
sinned  the  whole  house  of  Israel  suffered.     When 
you  sin  jour  friends  suffer,  your  children  suffer,  i^ 
your  mother  suffers,  Jesus  Christ  suffers.    All  sin 
is  great  for  this  reason.    It  is  against  God.    I  hold 
up  before  you  this  Book,  because  I  want  you  to 
understand  that  there  is  something  in  this  Book 
that  men  need  who  have  sinned.     This  is  atone-    ^ 
ment.    The  atonement  that  is  provided  in  the  sacri- 
ficial death  of  Jesus  Christ.     There  are  two  verses 
of  Scripture  that  come  before  me  at  this  moment. 
One,  "  the  wages  of  sin  is  death.''    The  other,  ''  the 
soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die."   God  has  never  taken 
those  verses  back.     But  there  is  a  third  verse  that 
says:    ^'Christ  died  for  our  sins."     According  to 
the  Scripture,  if  you  have  sinned  there  is  a  way  of 
escape;  the  Saviour  of  the  world  has  made  atone- 
ment. 

Second,  a  great  repentance.  You  have  probably 
read  the  Fifty-first  Psalm.  You  can  hardly  for- 
get it.  David  wrote  this  psalm  after  he  had  re- 
pented. "  Wash  me  thoroughly  from  mine  in- 
iquity and  purge  me  from  my  sin."  It  was  a  great 
repentance.  Remember  that  repentance  is  not 
merely  sorrow.  Sorrow  is  the  beginning  of  repent- 
ance, but  it  does  not  go  far  enough.     Hemember 


108  THREE  GREAT  THINGS 

,  also  that  repentance  is  not  mere  remorse.  Remorse 
is  a  part  of  repentance,  but  it  is  not  the  whole 
thing.  I  suppose  there  is  not,  in  all  the  world,  a 
man  who  realizes  his  sin  and  does  not  suffer.  He 
has  sorrow  enough  and  remorse  enough,  but  sor- 
row and  remorse  are  not  all  of  repentance.  Listen ! 
You  never  truly  repent  until  with  God's  help  you 

^  turn  away  from  sin  unto  God.  This  is  repentance, 
and  I  want  to  say  that  if  you  feel  that  you  cannot 
do  it  yourself,  if  you  have  no  strength  to  do  it,  I 
want  to  say  that  just  so  soon  as  you  know  that  you 
are  a  sinner  and  lift  your  eyes  to  Christ  the 
Saviour,  that  moment  all  the  strength  you  need 
will  be  yours.  You  can  turn  away  from  sin,  for 
God  will  help  you.     David  did,  and  so  may  you. 

Third,  a  great  forgiveness.  Read  the  Thirty- 
second  Psalm.  David  wrote  it  after  he  had  been 
forgiven.  The  Thirty-second  Psalm  is  a  perfect 
picture  of  one  who  has  been  forgiven.  We  are  told 
that  there  is  a  covering  for  sin.  What  is  this  cover- 
ing? You  have  tried  to  hide  your  sins,  but  you 
cannot  do  it.  You  think  that  you  can  hide  sin, 
but  it  will  come  forth.  I  was  preaching  in  a  town 
in  Ohio  where  there  is  a  college  and  I  heard  a  story 
about  the  President  of  the  institution.  One  morn- 
ing he  was  leading  a  Sunday  School.  It  was  De- 
cision Day.  A  teacher  came  to  him  and  said :  "  I 
want  to  give  you  something.  You  don't  know  me 
very  well,  but  I  give  you  this  letter  and  in  it  is 
something  I  want  you  to  dispose  of."     The  Presi- 


THREE  GREAT  THINGS  109 

dent  opened  the  letter  and  found  inside  a  very 
beautiful  lace  handkerchief.  This  was  the  letter 
he  read,  and  which  afterwards  he  showed  to  me: 
"  When  I  was  a  little  girl  in  a  Sunday  School, 
somebody  walking  down  the  aisle  of  the  School 
dropped  this  valuable  lace  handkerchief.  I  stooped 
quickly  and  picked  it  up.  I  am  now  a  woman 
grown,  and  have  children  of  my  own.  I  have  tried 
to  dispose  of  this  handkerchief  and  I  could  not.  I  ' 
have  tried  to  give  it  away,  and  I  could  not.  I  have 
tried  to  destroy  it,  and  I  could  not.  Somehow  it 
always  keeps  coming  before  me.  To-day  I  am  giv- 
ing it  to  you,  asking  you  to  do  with  it  what  you 
please.  For  years  it  has  hurt  me."  It  is  impos- 
sible to  cover  up  sin. 

The  other  day  in  Springfield,  someone  went  to 
one  of  the  ministers  and  said :  ^'  I  want  you  to  take 
this  bit  of  money.  I  took  it  wrongfully  when  I 
was  little  more  than  a  child.  I  have  compounded 
the  interest  and  this  is  the  full  amount.  All  my  ^ 
years  I  have  tried  to  cover  this  thing  over.  When- 
ever I  have  knelt  to  pray,  whenever  I  have  tried  to 
do  Christian  service,  this  money  has  risen  up  be- 
fore me."  But  in  this  Thirty-second  Psalm  we 
read  that  our  sins  may  be  covered.  How?  If 
there  is  in  your  life  something  that  is  wrong,  some 
sin  that  you  have  tried  to  hide,  take  Jesus  Christ 
as  your  Saviour  to-night  and  His  precious  blood 
will  cover  your  sin  out  of  sight.  A  great  forgive- 
ness! 


110  THREE  GREAT  THINGS 

My  friend  Samuel  H.  Hadley,  of  the  Water 
Street  Mission,  New  York,  was  sitting  outside  his 
Mission  door  one  day  when  a  little  boy  came  and 
said :  "  Mr.  Hadley,  will  you  ask  Mrs.  Hadley  to 
give  me  a  piece  of  cloth  and  a  needle  and  thread  ? " 
"  What  do  you  want  them  for  ? ''  asked  Mr.  Hadley. 
The  boy  answered :  "  To  mend  my  trousers."  My 
friend  said  that  he  looked  at  his  ragged  clothes  and 
it  seemed  as  if  they  were  not  worth  mending.  He 
hesitated  a  moment,  and  the  child  burst  into  tears 
and  started  down  Water  street,  turning  under 
Brooklyn  bridge.  But  Mr.  Hadley  ran  after  him 
and  said :  "  Come  back.  You  go  upstairs  and  Mrs. 
Hadley  will  take  care  of  you."  When  he  came 
down,  his  clothing  was  mended  and  he  was  leaving 
the  Mission.  My  friend  said  to  him :  "  What  is 
your  story?"  He  answered:  "I  stole  $20  from 
my  father  in  Philadelphia,  and  then  I  came  to  this 
city.  I  have  spent  all  the  money  and  I  am  afraid 
to  go  home.  I  have  been  sleeping  nights  wherever 
I  could."  "Well,"  said  Mr.  Hadley,  "go  back 
home  and  your  father  will  take  you  in."  "  Oh,  no, 
he  won^t,"  said  the  boy.  "  Well,  come  into  the 
Mission,"  said  Mr.  Hadley,  "  and  I  will  send  your 
father  a  letter."  This  is  what  he  wrote :  "  Dear 
■Sir :  Your  boy  is  very,  very  sorry  for  his  sin.  He 
is  in  my  Mission  here  and  he  wants  to  come  home. 
What  shall  I  tell  him  ?  "  The  letter  reached  Phila- 
delphia in  the  morning,  and  before  eleven  o'clock 
a  telegram  came  back  to  Mr.  Hadley,  at  316  Water 


THREE  GREAT  THINGS  111 

street :  "  Tell  the  dear  boy  lie  is  forgiven  and  I 
want  him  to  come  home  at  once." 

This  is  my  message  to  you  this  evening.  When 
Jesus  Christ  died  on  Calvary,  His  heart  broke  for 
the  sins  of  mankind.  Forgiveness  was  born  then, 
and  to-night  God  is  saying :  Turn  ye,  for  why  will 
ye  die  ?  Mr.  William  Reynolds,  of  Peoria,  Illinois, 
was  one  night  invited  by  the  Governor  of  Illinois 
to  meet  him  at  the  prison  in  Joliet.  He  made  his 
way  to  the  prison,  and  at  the  request  of  the  Gov- 
ernor spoke  to  the  prisoners  about  the  Gospel. 
Then  the  Governor  stood  up,  and  holding  a  long 
envelope  in  his  hand,  he  said :  "  Men,  this  is  the 
day  on  which  I  said  I  would  give  a  pardon  to  one 
man  in  the  prison."  Mr.  Reynolds  told  me  that 
every  man  in  the  prison  broke  the  prison  rules  and 
leaned  forward.  Every  man  was  saying  to  him- 
self :  I  wonder  if  it  can  be  for  me.  Then  the  Gov- 
ernor said :  "  This  pardon  I  am  going  to  give  is 
for  a  life  prisoner."  At  once  every  man  in  the 
prison  sank  back  except  the  life  men.  You  could 
pick  them  out  all  over  the  prison.  Then  the  Gov- 
ernor spoke  again :    "  This  pardon  is  for  ," 

and  then  came  the  man's  number  and  his  name,  but 
nobody  moved  forward.  After  waiting  a  moment, 
the  Governor  suggested  that  the  man  whose  name 
had  been  announced  should  put  his  hand  up.  A 
white  hand  went  up  in  obedience  to  the  Governor's 
suggestion,  and  suddenly  a  man  fell  with  a  thud 
on  the  floor.     They  carried  him  forward,  and  the 


U2  THREE  GREAT  THINGS 

Governor  came  down  from  the  platform  and  put 
the  pardon  in  his  right  hand.  My  friend  helped 
to  carry  him  out  into  the  sunlight. 

I  am  preaching  a  short  sermon,  but  I  want  every- 
body in  the  audience  to  hear  me.  I  have  a  pardon, 
signed  and  sealed.  It  is  full  and  free.  You  may 
have  it  if  you  will  take  it.  It  is  sealed  with  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  plead  mth  you  to  take 
Him,  and  in  taking  Him  to  accept  this  pardon. 
Weeks  have  passed  by  and  some  of  you  are  resist- 
ing still.  Some  of  you  have  never  yet  said  "  yes  " 
to  the  call  of  Christ.     Say  it  to-night!     Come! 


YOUR  SINS 

THIS  is  our  text.  It  is  startling  and  il- 
luminating. You  could  find  it  in  any 
part  of  the  Bible,  in  Genesis  or  Revela- 
tion, Exodus  or  The  Epistles.  But  I  find  it  espe- 
cially in  Isaiah  59 :  2.  First  of  all  let  me  say  that 
it  is  extremely  personal.  ISTot  your  neighbour's 
sins,  nor  your  husband's  sins,  nor  the  sins  of  your  ' 
friends,  but — your  sins!  I  want  you  each  to  have 
this  text  as  your  own. 

Let  us  begin  with  secret  sin.  The  sin  you  think  i- 
nobody  else  knows  about  in  the  world.  I  might  as 
well  tell  you  in  the  beginning  that  you  cannot  hide 
sin.  You  may  think  that  it  is  possible,  but  the 
friend  who  walks  with  you  knows  by  the  way  you  ^ 
walk.  The  one  who  talks  with  you  knows  by  the 
manner  of  your  speech.  The  one  who  lives  with 
you  knows  what  are  your  habits.  You  cannot  hide 
sin.  If  sin  can  be  hidden  from  men,  it  cannot  be  ^ 
hidden  from  God.  It  is  done  in  the  light  of  God's 
countenance.  No,  you  cannot  cover  sin.  I  speak 
to  you  this  evening  about  this  subject,  not  because 
it  is  pleasant  to  talk  about  personal  sin.  I  have 
another  reason  for  speaking  about  it.  I  know  that 
if  I  could  turn  your  attention  toward  Jesus  Christ, 
everybody  would  leave  this  building  with  bondage 

113 


114  YOUR  SINS 

broken,  chains  snapped,  darkness  dissipated,  doubt 
removed.     So  my  subject  is  your  personal  sin. 

Take  up  the  newspaper  of  this  morning  or  this 
evening  and  turn  over  the  pages  one  after  another. 
Everywhere  there  is  the  mark  of  sin.  Sin  has  hurt 
some  father,  injured  some  mother,  handicapped 
the  life  of  someone  who  had  started  out  well.  Or 
if  you  do  not  read  the  newspaper,  go  into  your 
library,  take  down  a  book  and  read  history.  You 
will  see  that  the  story  is  the  same.  Go  into  the  art 
gallery  and  in  many  pictures  you  will  find  some 
suggestion  or  mark  of  sin.  My  subject  is  very 
practical.  Your  sins!  Not  the  sin  of  the  man  at 
your  side,  not  the  sins  of  the  church.    Your  sins ! 

If  you  will  turn  over  the  pages  of  God's  Word 
you  will  find  the  story  of  sin  from  the  beginning. 
Follow  this: 

Adam — The  beginning  of  sin. 
Cain — The  mark  of  sin. 
Absalom — The  dividend  of  sin, 
*         Belshazzar — The  prejudice  of  sm. 
Judas — The  disloyalty  of  sin. 

Listen  to  this  question :  Is  your  heart  right  with 
God?  Your  sin!  I  do  not  need  to  tell  you  that 
sin  is  bondage.  It  is  worse  than  bondage.  The 
man  who  told  me  last  Sunday  afternoon  that  he 
would  break  away  from  impurity  if  he  could,  and 
added  "  My  God,  I  cannot  " ;  the  woman  who  wrote 
that  she  would  give  up  drugs  if  she  could  and  said, 
"  But,  my  God,  I  cannot " ;  the  young  fellow  who 


YOUR  SINS  115 

stopped  me  on  the  street  and  made  a  similar  con- 
fession— all  these  show  that  sin  is  bondage.  Now 
go  back  to  the  text  again  and  say — ^your  sins! 

I  want  to  keep  as  close  to  the  Scripture  as  pos- 
sible in  my  illustrations.  With  all  my  heart  I 
want  to  help  you.  Let  us  finish  this  text.  Your 
sins  have  hid  His  face  from  you  that  he  will  not 
hear.  There  are  a  great  many  people  who  say  that 
it  is  hard  for  them  to  begin  the  Christian  life. 
Probably  there  are  a  hundred  people  here  now  who 
are  saying  quite  honestly  that  they  would  begin  the 
Christian  life  if  they  understood  fully  about  it. 
I  need  not  waste  five  minutes  trying  to  prove  that 
it  is  the  right  thing  to  be  a  Christian.  Y^ou  were 
saying  that  there  are  difficulties  in  the  way.  I  will 
tell  you  why.  You  have  started  wrong.  You  wane  i 
to  be  a  Christian,  but  all  the  time  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  in  your  life,  some  hidden  sin,  some- 
thing you  have  almost  forgotten.  You  are  groping 
for  God  and  saying :  ^^  Oh,  that  I  might  find 
Him !  "  You  have  heard  me  speak  of  Jesus  night 
after  night.  I  have  told  you  that  anybody  who 
accepts  Jesus  will  never  come  into  condemnation, 
never  stand  before  God  at  the  great  white  throne 
of  judgment.  That  is  past  forever.  And  you  say : 
"  Oh,  that  this  might  be  true  in  my  case."  I  will 
tell  you  where  the  trouble  is.  Your  sins!  They 
hide  God's  face. 

I  throw  out  a  challenge  this  evening  to  everyone 
in  this  building,  especially  to  the  old  soldiers  here. 


116  YOUR  SINS 

If  you  will  turn  awaj  from  every  sin,  so  far  as  you 
know  it  in  your  life,  and  faithfully  accept  Jesus 
Christ  as  your  personal  Saviour,  I  stand  here  to 
say  that  you  will  be  a  saved  man  or  woman.  I  am 
willing  to  say  that  if  your  acceptance  of  Jesus 
^\  Christ  and  your  turning  away  from  sin  did  not 
save  you,  I  would  renounce  my  own  salvation  if  I 
could  in  your  behalf.  I  long  to  see  you  come  to 
Christ.  You  never  can  come  to  Him  until  you 
turn  away  from  sin. 

Look  at  Jeremiah  5 :  25 — "  Your  iniquities  have 
turned  away  these  things,  and  your  sins  have  with- 
^  holden  good  from  you.''  Listen  to  that.  "  Your 
sins  have  withholden  good  from  you."  I  am  won- 
dering if  some  of  you  say :  Why  are  you  asking  us 
to  join  the  Pocket  Testament  League?  Why  do 
you  want  us  to  carry  this  little  book  with  us? 
Some  of  you  are  saying:  I  have  read  that  book 
and  it  does  not  interest  me.  I  will  tell  you  why. 
'^  You  have  read  it  with  some  sin  in  your  life  that 
you  would  not  give  up,  and  sin  has  blinded  your 
eyes.  Wlien  you  read  God's  Word  with  sin  in  your 
life  the  devil  always  makes  it  uninteresting.  Sin 
withholds  good  things  from  you.  It  keeps  you  from 
appreciatmg  Christ. 

One   of   our  workers  wont   down   one   of  these 

aisles  the  other  evening  and  stopped  to  speak  to  a 

woman.      He   was    speaking   to   her    about    Jesus 

'   Christ,  and  the  woman  said :    "  Never  again  speak 

His  name  to  me.    I  hate  Him."    I  became  a  Chris- 


YOUR  SINS  117 

tian  wlien  I  was  a  boy,  and  I  have  been  serving 
Jesus  Christ  all  my  life.  I  am  not  a  fanatic.  I 
know  life,  and  I  want  to  say  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  dearest  friend  I  have  ever  had.  There  have 
been  times  when  all  the  stars  went  out  of  the  sky 
in  my  life  and  He  has  been  near  me.  There  have 
been  times  when  my  heartstrings  were  strained  to 
snapping,  and  I  have  felt  His  loving  arms  around 
me.  There  have  been  times  when  I  have  carried 
my  best  and  dearest  to  the  grave  and  He  stood  near 
and  comforted  me.  The  only  reason  in  the  world 
that  you  do  not  accept  my  Saviour  and  come  down 
this  aisle  and  take  my  hand  and  say :  "  From  to- 
night I  choose  Him/' — the  only  reason  I  know  of 
is  your  sins.  Your  sins !  They  have  withholden 
good  things  from  you  and  kept  you  back  from  the 
best.  No  man  in  this  city  need  tell  me  that  he  is 
satisfied  in  his  heart  without  Christ.  I  know  that 
he  is  not.  You  can  gain  the  world  and  your  heart 
will  still  ache  You  can  have  all  the  wealth  of  the 
world  and  carry  a  broken  heart.  You  can  gain 
fame  and  die  m  misery.  There  is  only  one  way  to 
find  peace.  Turn  away  from  your  sins  and  take 
the  Saviour. 

The  last  time  I  was  with  D.  L.  Moody  was 
shortly  before  he  died,  in  Pittsburgh,  in  the  old 
First  Presbyterian  Church.  We  were  holding 
meetings.  He  was  too  weak  to  take  all  the  service, 
and  I  came  to  take  part  of  it.  He  would  preach 
and  I  would  come  forward  and  take  the  after  meet- 


118  YOUR  SINS 

ing.  The  last  illustration  I  ever  heard  him  use 
was  this:  He  was  on  the  battlefield  in  the  Civil 
War,  with  the  Christian  Commission,  and  he  came 
to  a  soldier  who  was  all  shot  to  pieces.  They 
stopped  long  enough  to  straighten  out  his  limbs, 
and  moisten  his  lips  with  the  water  in  his  canteen. 
The  touch  of  the  water  revived  the  boy  and  he 
opened  his  eyes.  "  Can  I  do  anything  for  you  ?  " 
Moody  inquired.  "  Chaplain,"  was  the  reply,  "  I 
think  you  could  read  to  me."  "  What  shall  I 
read  ?  "  "  Sir,"  said  the  soldier  boy,  ^^  put  your 
hand  in  my  pocket  and  pull  out  my  little  Testa- 
ment." There  was  blood  on  it,  and  on  his  hand, 
too.  He  said  to  him :  "  Where  shall  I  read  for  a 
time  like  this  ?  "  And  the  boy  answered :  "  The 
fourteenth  chapter  of  John."  ^'  And  so,"  said 
Moody,  "  I  went  down  on  my  knees  with  the  blood- 
marked  Testament  in  my  hand.  I  read  twenty-six 
verses  of  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John,  and  the 
dying  scldier  never  opened  his  eyes.  He  was  lying 
there  breathing  heavily  and  drifting  out  into  eter- 
nity. But  when  I  came  to  the  twenty-seventh 
verse — ^  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give 
unto  you,'  the  boy  opened  his  eyes  quickly  and 
said :  ^  Chaplain,  don't  read  any  more.  I  have 
that  peace.'  Almost  immediately  his  eyes  closed 
and  his  heart  became  still."  I  saw  the  great  evan- 
gelist lean  over  the  church  pulpit  as  he  told  this 
story,  with  tears  running  down  his  face.    He  knew, 


YOUR  SINS  119 

as  lie  stretclied  liis  hands  out  to  the  great  audience, 
that  he  himself  was  not  far  from  the  end. 

Some  persons  seem  to  think  that  it  is  only  peace 
for  the  hour  of  death  that  comes  to  a  Christian, 
but  I  know  that  it  is  peace  for  every  day  and  every 
hour  of  every  day.  Some  of  you  have  not  got  it. 
You  old  soldiers  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic, you  are  getting  fewer  in  number.  Mrs.  Chap- 
man and  I  were  in  Washing1;on,  D.  C,  when  you 
were  having  your  grand  review.  Every  time  I 
passed  an  old  soldier  I  wanted  to  salute  him.  It 
seems  to  me  that  you  deserve  the  best.  It  grieves 
me  as  I  look  into  your  fine  old  faces  to  think  that 
sin  might  withhold  good  things  from  you. 

Let  me  say  another  thing.  Your  sins  have  kept 
back  deliverance  in  the  hour  of  trial.  All  of  you^. 
have  had  heartaches.  You  have  had  times  when 
the  shadows  have  fallen  across  your  home.  You 
have  followed  some  loved  one  to  the  grave,  and  you 
have  said :  "  My  God !  I  think  my  heart  will 
break."  You  have  come  back  from  the  cemetery 
and  have  stood  alone  by  your  fireside.  What  you 
needed  was  the  consolation  of  the  Saviour's  pres- 
ence. It  would  make  the  last  of  life  beautiful.  It 
would  make  the  beginning  of  life  great.  It  would 
make  the  meridian  of  life  marvellous — to  have 
Him.  Take  Him ;  Oh,  take  Him !  Your  sins  have 
withholden  good  things  from  you  if  they  have  kept 
you  from  Christ.  They  have  robbed  you  of  that 
which  makes  life  truly  worth  while. 


120  YOUR  SINS 

I  was  sitting  in  mj  study  in  Philadelplaia  one 
day  when  I  heard  a  quick  rap  at  the  door.  With- 
out rising,  I  said :  "  Come  in."  A  gentleman 
opened  the  door  and  cried  out :  ^^  Hurry  across 
with  me,  please.  Mother  is  dead."  Then  he  went 
on :  "  We  found  her  dead  this  morning.  She  was 
with  us  last  night,  apparently  well.  She  sat  with 
us  as  we  sang  the  songs  of  the  Church  at  family 
worship.  She  said  good  night  with  a  smile.  My 
mother  always  had  a  strange  h-aMt.  She  carried 
with  her  in  her  hand  as  she  went  to  her  room  a 
little  old-fashioned  lamp.  She  would  hold  it  in  her 
hand  and  stand  at  the  door,  and,  with  a  smile  on 
her  face,  she  would  say — ^  Good  night,  good  night ! 
I  will  see  you  in  the  morning.'  She  said  it  last 
night  and  I  thought  that  she  was  sweeter  than  ever 
as  the  old-fashioned  lamp  lighted  up  her  face.  She 
climbed  the  stairway,  and  this  morning  we  waited 
and  she  did  not  come.  I  went  to  her  door  and 
rapped,  and  there  was  no  answer.  Then  I  opened 
the  door  and  she  seemed  to  he  sleeping.  I  walked 
over  to  her  bedside,  and  mother  was  dead."  And 
the  great  strong  business  man  sat  in  the  chair  by 
my  desk  and  dropped  his  face  in  his  hands  and 
cried  as  if  his  heart  would  break.  Then  suddenly 
he  stood  up  and  said :  "  But  I  will  see  her  in  the 
morning." 

I  turn  again  to  the  Scripture.  Here  is  a  won- 
derful sentence,  in  Isaiah  1 :  18 — ^^  Though  your 
sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as  snow." 


YOUR  SINS  121 

When  we  were  in  Australia,  a  gentleman  came  to 
me  and  said :  "  Did  you  ever  know  that  if  you  take 
a  piece  of  red  glass  and  look  through  it  at  a  red 
ohject,  the  red  object  will  become  white.''  The  next 
day  was  a  beautiful  summer  morning.  I  took  a 
piece  of  red  glass  and  held  it  over  a  red  flower.  I 
looked  through  the  red  glass  and  the  red  flower  was 
white.  It  seemed  marvellous  to  me,  but  I  know 
something  more  marvellous.  It  is  this:  To-night, 
if  I  could  only  persuade  you  to  accept  the  invita- 
tion to  come  to  Christ  with  your  sins,  you  would 
see  something  marvellous.  Though  your  sins  be 
like  scarlet,  God  will  look  at  them  through  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  and  they  will  be  white.  You 
old  soldiers,  come  to  Christ  with  your  sins  and  let 
God  make  them  white.  I  am  a  conservative  old- 
fashioned  Christian,  but  I  can  never  say  what  I 
have  just  said  without  crying — 'Hallelujah,  what  a 
Saviour ! 

The  other  night,  in  Atlanta,  I  said  in  a  meeting : 
If  there  is  a  poor,  fallen  girl  in  this  building  who 
has  found  her  way  in  here,  and  has  no  one  to  help 
her,  if  she  will  lift  up  her  hand  and  turn  to  God 
in  penitence.  He  will  save  her  through  Christ. 
Away  back  in  the  audience  a  fallen  girl  from  the 
streets  who  had  drifted  in,  quick  as  a  flash,  put  up 
her  hand.  A  beautiful  woman  went  to  her  and 
spoke  to  her.  She  took  her  to  a  house  near  by  and 
led  her  to  Christ.  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet, 
they  shall  be  as  white  as  snow. 


122  YOUR  SINS 

I  come  to  the  close,  but  I  must  tell  jou  a  little 
about  the  cure.  I  John  2 :  12 — "  Your  sins  are 
forgiven."  There  is  a  difference  between  human 
forgiveness  and  divine  forgiveness.  One  day  a 
man  came  to  one  of  our  meetings.  I  had  never 
seen  him  and  he  had  never  seen  me.  He  hated  the 
tiTith  for  which  I  stood,  and  he  began  to  talk  about 
me.  He  went  up  and  down  tlie  streets  saying 
things  derogatory  to  my  character.  Men  began  to 
whisper  them  on  the  streets,  and  the  man  himself 
was  gone,  five  hundred  miles  away.  I  sent  for  him 
and  talked  to  him  in  a  room  in  the  hotel.  I  said 
to  him :  "  Did  you  ever  see  me  before  ? ''  "  Never," 
he  said.  "  Are  these  things  you  have  been  saying 
about  me  true  ? "  I  asked.  ^^  No,  sir,"  was  his 
reply.  "  Why  did  you  say  them  ?  "  I  asked.  ^^  Be- 
cause,  sir,  I  am  ashamed  to  say  I  hate  the  things 
you  have  been  preaching,  and  I  thought  that  I 
could  silence  you."  I  had  an  officer  of  the  law  at 
hand.  I  could  have  had  him  arrested  and  tried 
and  sent  to  prison.  I  walked  across  the  floor  and 
said :  "  I  want  to  tell  you  something.  I  am  going 
to  forgive  you  freely.  One  of  my  children  might 
hear  this  vile  slander,  but  I  will  forgive  you."  His 
face  became  deathly  white.  "  You  don't  mean  it," 
he  said.  As  he  walked  out  of  the  room,  he  said: 
"  Thank  you,  sir.  l^ou  really  are  a  Christian. 
Thank  you."  I  did  forgive  him,  but  to  this  day  I 
remember  how  my  face  flushed  and  my  heart  quick- 
ened, and  my  tears  fell.     I  thought  that  I  would 


YOUR  SINS  123 

die  when  I  imagined  that  people  might  think  ill  of 
me.  I  forgave  him  and  remembered.  That  is 
human.  But  when  God  forgives,  when  I  come  with 
my  sins  and  face  them  and  turn  away  from  them, 
when  I  say  with  all  my  heart,  I  will  give  them 
up — God  forgives,  and  He  forgets.  Hallelujah! 
Hallelujah! 

A  minister  had  preached  a  great  sermon.  In  his 
youth  he  had  broken  almost  every  law  of  God  but 
one.  He  had  shattered  his  mother's  heart,  so  he 
said.  But  he  had  found  his  Saviour,  and  now  he 
was  preaching  His  wonderful  Gospel.  When  he 
finished  his  sermon,  all  over  the  audience  people 
began  to  rise  and  come  forward.  His  officers  gath- 
ered around  him  and  said :  "  That  was  the  greatest 
appeal  of  your  life."  Then  there  came  down  the 
aisle  of  the  church  an  old  woman.  Her  hair  was 
gray,  but  it  was  like  a  halo  of  glory.  Her  brow 
was  furrowed,  but  it  was  like  the  touch  of  angels' 
fing-ers.  When  she  reached  the  great  strong  min- 
ister, she  looked  at  him  a  moment,  and  then  put 
her  hands  behind  his  head  and  drew  his  face  down 
until  it  was  level  with  hers :  "  Jimmie,  my  pre- 
cious boy,''  she  cried,  ^'  what  made  you  tell  it  ? 
What  made  you  tell  it  ?  You  never  were  bad  like 
that."  She  had  forgiven  and  forgotten.  But  I 
know  something  better  than  that.  When  I  stand 
face  to  face  with  God,  not  a  single  sin  I  have  ever 
committed  will  be  mentioned.  He  has  forgiven 
and  forgotten. 


124  YOUR  SINS 

Your  sins  can  be  blotted  out.  This  is  the  chem- 
istry of  the  Gospel.  Your  debt  can  be  paid.  This 
is  commercial.  The  stain  can  be  taken  away. 
There  is  a  story  about  one  of  your  governors  that 
has  interested  me.  He  was  a  Christian.  There 
was  a  boy  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  who  was  high 
in  social  life,  but  he  had  been  guilty  of  a  capital 
crime  and  was  in  prison.  His  friends  did  every- 
thing they  could  to  save  his  life.  But  the  gov- 
ernor said :  ^'  No."  The  boy's  mother  swooned  in 
his  office,  and  they  carried  her  out.  Then  the  gov- 
ernor said :  "  I  know  what  I  can  do.  I  can  go  to 
Philadelphia  and  tell  that  boy  how  to  die.''  It  is 
on  record  that  he  went  into  the  cell  of  the  boy. 
The  prisoner  did  not  know  him.  There  sat  your 
governor  with  his  open  Bible,  telling  the  con- 
demned boy  how  to  die.  The  boy  listened,  and  not 
knowing  his  visitor,  he  said :  "  Well,  sir,  if  I  must 
die,  I  am  not  afraid  after  this."  Then  the  gov- 
ernor arose  without  revealing  himself  and  said 
good-bye.  The  boy  stood  with  his  face  against  the 
bars,  looking  after  the  governor  as  he  went  down 
the  corridor.  When  the  warden  came  he  said  to 
him :  "  Warden,  tell  me  who  was  the  man  in  my 
cell  a  moment  ago."  And  the  warden  answered: 
"  Why,  man,  that  was  the  governor."  Then  the 
prisoner,  holding  on  to  the  bars  of  his  cell,  threw 
himself  back  at  arms'  length,  and  as  he  fell  he 
said :  "  Oh,  my  God !  The  governor  in  this  cell 
and  I  never  knew  it!     Why  didn't  you  tell  me? 


YOUR  SINS  125 

If  I  had  known,  I  would  never  have  let  him  leave 
the  cell  until  he  had  given  me  mj  pardon."  He 
kept  on  saying:  "  The  governor  here  and  I  never 
knew  it.''  There  is  a  greater  than  the  governor 
here.  I  put  my  hands  to  my  eyes  and  I  can  see 
Him.  He  is  very  near.  Anyone  of  us  can  touch 
Him.  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet!  Take 
Him!     Take  Him! 


XI 

WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIK  SINS 

I  HAVE  no  apology  to  make  for  speaking 
many  times  about  sin.  It  is  the  world's 
great  sore  spot.  I  have  this  conviction, 
that  if  I  can  say  any  word  that  will  lead  men  to 
hate  sin,  they  will  be  forever  grateful.  I  have  a 
text  of  Scripture  which  will  be  found  in  Proverbs 
5 :  22 — ''  He  shall  be  holden  with  the  cords  of  his 
sin."  This  text  brings  before  you  a  picture.  You 
see  a  man  bound  with  chains.  Nevertheless  the 
chains  are  invisible.  They  are  the  chains  of  his 
passions,  his  habits,  his  evil  deeds.  How  easy  it 
is  to  turn  to  God's  Word  and  find  a  text  like  this. 
What  a  marvellous  Book  it  is,  any  way  we  take  it. 
If  anybody  in  this  audience  has  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  the  Bible  is  not  an  interesting  Book, 
he  has  come  to  this  conclusion  for  one  of  two  rea- 
sons. Either  that  he  has  ceased  to  study  it,  or  that 
there  is  some  sin  in  his  life  that  keeps  him  from 
appreciating  the  Bible.  I  do  not  know  anything 
in  the  world  that  will  so  strengthen  your  mind,  so 
help  you  in  the  building  of  character,  so  deliver 
you  from  the  power  of  sin,  as  to  keep  this  Bible 
close  to  you.    I  advise  you  to  carry  it  with  you,  at 

least  some  portion  of  it,  and  when  you  have  a  bit 

126 


WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS    127 

of  spare  time,  take  it  out  and  read  it.  If  we  re- 
gard it  only  as  literature,  it  is  the  very  tet  the 
world  has  known.  But  we  know  that  it  is  vastly 
more. 

A  text  like  this  one  is  very  striking — "  He  shall 
be  holden  with  the  cords  of  his  sin."  Sin  always 
has  small  beginnings.  A  friend  of  mine  was  stand- ' 
ing  one  day  on  the  piazza  of  his  house  while  it  was 
storming.  The  property  had  been  his  father's,  and  he 
had  spent  his  boyhood  days  on  the  estate.  A  terrific 
wind  came  with  the  storm,  and  from  his  place  on 
the  piazza  he  saw  the  finest  tree  on  the  place  come 
down  with  a  crash.  Waiting  until  the  storm  was 
past,  he  went  out  over  the  lawn  and  found  the 
secret  of  the  fall  of  the  tree.  He  remembered  when 
he  was  a  boy  crossing  the  lawn  one  day  with  an 
axe  in  his  hand  and,  carelessly  swinging  the  axe, 
he  had  cut  into  the  bark  of  the  tree.  Before  the 
bark  healed,  water  seeped  in,  which  worked  its  way 
to  the  heart  of  the  tree.  For  years  it  had  been 
slowly  decaying,  and  at  length  the  end  came. 
Every  failure  that  comes  into  life  through  sin  is 
a  story  of  a  small  beginning.  The  progress  is  slow, 
but  it  is  sure.  There  is  a  certain  insect  in  India 
that  has  a  sharp  sting.  The  moment  after  the  in- 
sect stings  you,  your  eyes  grow  glassy,  your  lips 
become  blue,  your  face  white,  and  although  you 
may  have  been  in  perfect  health,  the  sting  of  this 
insect  means  certain  death.  When  men  drift  away 
from  God,  their  consciences  become  seared  and  they 


128    WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS 

lose  their  sensitiveness  to  sin.  In  earlier  years 
they  would  have  checked  sin,  but  now  they  commit 
it  with  impunity.  So  it  comes  to  pass  that  men 
are  ''  holden  with  the  cords  of  their  sins/' 

But  what  do  men  do  with  their  sins  ?  To  answer 
this  question  I  turn  to  my  Bible.  In  Genesis,  the 
fourth  chapter,  I  read  about  Cain  and  Abel  in  the 
field.  When  Cain  struck  the  blow  that  killed  his 
brother,  and  when  the  murderer  was  asked: 
"  Where  is  Abel  thy  brother  ?  "  he  tried  to  evade 
the  question  by  asking  another  question :  ^'  Am  I 
my  brother's  keeper  ?  "  There  are  thousands  of 
men  like  Cain.  Oh,  yes,  they  believe  in  a  manner 
the  teachings  of  this  Old  Book.  They  know  that 
"  the  wages  of  sin  is  death  " ;  that  "  God  is  not  to 
be  mocked  " ;  that  "  whatsoever  a  man  sows,  that 
shall  he  also  reap."  But  they  think  that  they  are 
so  clever  that  they  will  be  an  exception  to  the  rule. 
They  think  that  some  time  they  will  turn  away 
from  their  sin  and  that  God's  law  will  forget  all 
about  it.    But  you  cannot  evade  sin. 

I  may  have  told  you  the  story  of  a  splendid 
policeman  whose  position  is  at  the  most  congested 
center  on  Fifth  avenue  in  New  York.  He  was  the 
master  of  the  traffic.  He  did  it  so  magnificently 
that  prominent  men  on  their  way  to  business  would 
ask  their  chauffeurs  to  slow  up  so  they  could  greet 
him.  Beautiful  women  often  greeted  him  with  a 
smile.  He  was  on  his  way  to  promotion.  He  al- 
most reached  one  of  the  highest  positions  that  a 


WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS    129 

policeman  can  occupy  in  New  York.  One  day 
there  came  a  message  to  him  calling  him  to  appear 
in  the  office  of  his  superior.  He  went  with  fear 
and  trembling.  The  moment  he  entered  the  office 
his  conviction  that  something  was  wrong  deepened, 
and  when  his  superior  turned  to  him  with  a 
strained  look  in  his  eye,  saying :  "  Officer,  I  am 
sorry,"  he  never  allowed  him  to  finish  the  sentence. 
He  walked  towards  his  superior  and  began  to  take 
off  the  star,  the  sign  of  his  authority.  He  reached 
for  the  mace  that  he  carried.  Then  he  drew  off 
his  coat  and  laid  it  at  the  feet  of  his  superior,  and 
began  to  tell  his  story.  He  said :  "  I  knew  it 
would  come.  I  did  it  thirteen  years  ago,  sir,  and 
for  ten  years  I  thought  that  I  had  escaped  it.  I 
buried  it  so  deeply  that  I  thought  there  could  never 
be  any  resurrection  of  it.  But  for  three  years, 
since  I  knew  that  promotion  was  ahead  of  me,  I 
have  never  been  without  fear  that  this  would  come.'' 
He  backed  out  of  the  office,  went  to  the  lower  room, 
and  resigned  his  position.  Nobody  knows  where  he 
is  to-day.  He  had  sinned  against  God,  against  his 
wife,  against  society.  He  thought  he  could  escape, 
but  he  found  otherwise.  I  say  to  you  all :  "  Be  not 
deceived.  God  is  not  mocked."  You  cannot  evade 
sin. 

Some  men  encourage  sin.  There  is  no  more 
striking  illustration  of  this  than  Judas  Iscariot. 
When  the  ointment  had  been  poured  on  Jesus,  he 
said ;    "  It  might  have  been  sold  and  the  money 


130    WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS 

given  to  tlie  poor."  From  that  time  lie  started  on 
a  downward  way.  It  was  because  he  was  a  thief 
that  he  said  this,  and  step  by  step  he  got  further 
away  from  Jesus,  until  at  last  he  made  his  way 
into  the  presence  of  the  enemies  of  Jesus  and  bar- 
tered for  his  Lord's  death.  In  those  last  hours, 
when  they  sat  all  together  in  the  little  upper  room, 
Jesus  turned  to  him  and  said :  ^'  What  thou 
doest,  do  quickly."  Judas  rose  and  passed  out  of 
the  room.  A  Scotch  poet  has  imagined  that  as 
Judas  was  leaving  the  room,  he  looked  back.  The 
Master  saw  him  and  raised  His  hand  and  beckoned 
to  him  as  if  He  was  saying:  Come  back!  That  is 
not  mere  imagination.  It  is  a  perfect  picture  of 
Jesus.  How  could  Judas  ever  have  resisted  that 
beckoning  hand  ?  Some  men  go  deeper  into  sin. 
They  encourage  sin. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  natural  drift  in  men 
towards  evil.  When  I  take  away  my  hand  from 
the  book  I  am  holding,  it  drops  to  the  floor.  There 
is  a  law  that  pulls  it  down.  So  there  is  a  law  of 
moral  gravitation,  which  pulls  us  down.  Unless 
we  resist  it  we  shall  sink  to  lower  levels.  Some 
Amen  encourage  sin  by  failing  to  resist  it.  What  a 
terrible  end  awaited  Judas!  Burdened  with  his 
sin,  he  passed  the  rope  around  his  neck  and  swung 
out  over  the  abyss.  "  The  wages  of  sin  is  death." 
This  is  the  story  of  Judas  Iscariot.  But  if  you  are 
encouraging  your  sin,  I  want  you  to  keep  in  mind 


WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS    131 

tlie  picture  of  Jesus  beckoning  to  you  and  calling 
you  back. 

One  day  in  Mr.  Wanamaker's  Sunday  School  in 
Philadelphia,  an  English  minister  was  present  and 
addressed  the  school.  When  he  had  finished  the 
address,  he  sat  beside  me  and  told  me  a  story,  part 
of  which  I  had  heard  before.  It  was  the  story  of 
a  young  girl  who  had  drifted  into  a  life  of  sin  and 
shame.  Her  mother  was  broken-hearted,  and  she 
came  to  this  English  minister  and  said :  "  My 
daughter  has  gone.  Can  you  win  her  back  to  me  ?  " 
The  minister  said :  *'  Bring  me  all  the  pictures  you 
have  of  yourself,"  and  she  brought  them.  He 
placed  them  before  him  and  dipped  his  pen  in  red 
ink  and  wrote  at  the  bottom  of  each  picture  two 
words — Come  hack!  He  took  these  to  all  the  mis- 
sion stations  and  haunts  of  vice  as  well.  Three 
months  passed,  and  one  night,  as  the  girl  was  going 
into  a  place  of  sin,  she  suddenly  lifted  her  eyes  and 
saw  the  face,  the  first  that  had  looked  into  hers 
with  love.  At  first  she  could  not  read  the  words 
for  her  tears.  At  length  she  understood  the  two 
words  that  were  written  in  red  ink — Come  back. 
Along  the  streets  of  London  she  went,  out  to  the 
edge  of  the  city,  paused  for  a  little  while  before  a 
small  house  in  the  darkness,  and  then  stole  up  to 
the  door,  lifted  the  latch  and  drew  it  back.  Once 
she  started  to  turn  away,  but  she  came  back  and 
lifted  the  latch  again.  All  at  once  the  door  yielded 
to  her  touch,  and  the  moment  the  door  was  opened 


132    WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS 

two  arms  were  around  her  neck  and  her  mother's 
face  was  buried  on  her  shoulder.  Over  and  over 
again  the  prodigal  girl  heard  her  mother  saying: 
"  My  dear,  ever  since  you  went  away  the  door  has 
been  open.  I  have  left  it  on  the  latch  ever  since 
you  started  away."  Oh,  if  there  is  a  sin  in  your 
life  that  you  have  been  encouraging,  to-night  I  lift 
before  you  a  face  purer  than  any  mother's  face, 
and  I  read  beneath  it  these  words,  not  in  ink,  but 
in  blood :  Come  back !  Come  back !  Though  your 
sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as  snow, 
though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as 
wool. 

Again  I  ask,  what  do  men  do  with  their  sins? 
Some  men  try  to  cover  them  like  Aclian.  Do  you 
remember  the  Old  Testament  story?  God's  an- 
cient people  had  moved  up  against  the  city  of 
Jericho,  and  for  seven  days  they  had  been  march- 
ing around  the  city.  On  the  seventh  day  they 
shouted  and  shouted,  and  the  walls  of  the  city  fell 
down,  and  the  city  was  taken.  Then  the  same  peo- 
ple went  up  to  a  little  to\vn  called  Ai,  and  there 
they  met  with  defeat,  because  there  was  one  man 
who  was  guilty  of  sin.  That  man  had  seen  a 
Babylonish  garment  and  a  wedge  of  gold,  and  he 
had  taken  them  to  his  tent  and  covered  them  over. 
Because  Achan  sinned,  the  people  suffered  defeat. 
Do  you  remember  how  it  runs  in  the  story  ?  /  saw, 
I  coveted,  I  took,  I  hid!  I  am  afraid  that  there 
are  people  in  this  city  who  are  covering  their  sins. 


WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS    133 

I  am  not  here  to  hear  confessions,  unless  it  be  tliat 
you  could  tell  your  story  to  me  as  a  stranger  better 
than  to  anyone  else,  and  it  might  help  you  to  do 
so.    The  other  night,  in  Springfield,  I  had  a  letter 
from  a  gentleman  who  said :    '^  I  am  prominent  in 
this  city.    If  you  were  to  read  my  name,  everybody 
in   the    audience   would   know   me.      My  heart   is 
broken.''     Then  followed  his  story,  which  I  will 
not  dare  to  repeat.     But  what  he  told  me  in  sub- 
stance was  that  for  two  years  past  he  had  been 
seeking  some  one  into  whose  ears  he  could  pour  his 
story.     There  is  great  help  ofttimes  in  confessing 
one's  sin  to  some  one  whom  you  can  trust.     But 
there  is  one  thing  that  you  can  always  do  with  your 
sin.     You  can  confess  it  to  God.     You  can  stop 
trying  to  cover  it,  and  with  God's  help  you  can 
turn  away  from  it.     Then  God  Himself  will  cover 
your  sin   and  blot   it  out  forever.      There  is  one 
hymn  that  we  sing  almost  every  night.     It  is  my 
favorite  hymn: 

'*  There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood, 
Drawn  from  Immanuel's  veins; 
And  sinners  plunged  beneath  that  fiood 
Lose  all  their  guilty  stains." 

No,  you  cannot  cover  sin  yourself.  To-night, 
I  make  an  earnest  appeal  to  you  to  confess  your 
sin  to  God  and  ask  Him  to  help  you  to  turn  away 
from  your  sin. 

I  come  to  the  close  of  my  message.  There  is  no 
use  trying  to  cover  sin.     Acknowledge  it  to  God. 


134    WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS 

David  said :  "  I  acknowledge  mj  transgressions 
and  my  sin  is  ever  before  me."  Do  you  know  I 
think  that  David's  sin  was  one  of  the  worst  in  the 
Bible,  but  David  did  not  go  on.  He  acknowledged 
his  sin.  Listen  to  me,  men.  Listen  to  me,  women, 
and  young  people.  When  we  talk  about  acknowl- 
edging sin,  this  means  all  sin.  You  cannot  start 
and  then  stop,  holding  on  to  one  sin.  You  cannot 
say :  ^^  I  am  determined  to  drop  one  sin  at  a  time 
and  after  a  while  to  get  into  the  Kingdom."  The 
only  way  to  escape  is  to  acknowledge  all  sin  and 
turn  from  all  sin.  Mr.  Alexander's  secretary,  in 
traveling  across  the  Pacific  some  time  ago,  had  a 
conversation  with  a  medical  man  of  authority,  who 
told  him  this  story:  A  certain  scientist  in  Aus- 
tralia has  been  for  years  experimenting  with  the 
venom  of  snakes,  in  the  endeavor  to  discover  an 
effective  antidote.  He  kept  in  a  deep  pit  on  his 
property  in  Sidney,  Australia,  a  number  of  snakes 
from  which  he  extracted  venom  from  time  to  time. 
Finally,  he  discovered  an  antidote  which  proved  to 
be  effective.  With  the  recipe  in  his  possession,  he 
sailed  for  India,  hoping  to  sell  his  remedy  to  the 
Indian  Government.  He  believed  that  it  would 
make  him  worth  millions.  Now,  listen.  One  day 
he  was  demonstrating  the  power  of  his  antidote  be- 
fore a  number  of  scientific  and  professional  men 
in  India.  For  the  purpose,  he  took  a  small  but 
very  deadly  serpent,  and  allowed  it  to  sting  him 
several  times  on  the  -wrist.     Then  very  quickly  he 


WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS    135 

applied  the  antidote.  Everything  seemed  all  right, 
and  the  representatives  of  the  Government  said: 
"  This  recipe  is  worth  a  fortune."  Full  of  joy,  he 
went  away  to  luncheon  with  some  of  the  scientists. 
At  luncheon  he  suddenly  realized  that  the  venom 
of  the  serpent  was  working  in  his  own  veins.  In  a 
short  time  he  was  dead.  He  thought  that  the  ser- 
pent had  stung  him  only  three  times.  He  had 
treated  three  stings  and  missed  a  fourth.  This 
evening  I  stand  here  and  say  to  you  as  a  minister 
of  the  gospel,  that  there  is  only  one  sure  cure,  only 
one  way  of  escape.  Acknowledge  all  your  sins. 
Turn  away  from  all  your  sins. 

How  I  wish  that  I  could  take  you  by  the  hand, 
men  and  women,  and  speak  to  your  very  heart.  It 
does  not  make  any  difference  what  your  sin  is. 
Turn  away  from  it,  and  God  will  cover  it  up  with 
the  sacrifice  of  His  Son.  Listen  to  me.  I  am  tell- 
ing you  the  truth  of  the  gospel.  Will  you  ac- 
cept it  ? 

You  can  repent  of  your  sin.  What  is  repent- 
ance? I  remember  once  speaking  to  an  audience 
in  New  York,  and  I  asked  the  people  to  tell  me 
their  idea  of  repentance.  One  man  said :  "  Re- 
pentance is  sorrow  for  sin."  Why,  it  is  not  that 
at  all.  If  that  were  repentance,  then  everybody! - 
here  that  has  ever  sinned  has  repented,  for  every- 
body is  sorry  for  sin.  Another  man  said :  ^^  Re- 
pentance is  remorse  for  sin."  No,  it  is  not  that. 
If  repentance  is  remorse,  then  everybody  in  this 


136    WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS 

building  has  repented.  One  never  sins  without  re- 
morse. What  is  repentance  ?  I  will  tell  you.  Ee- 
pentance  is  being  so  sorry  for  your  sin  that  with 
God's  help  you  turn  away  from  it  immediately  and 
give  it  up. 

I  would  give  anything  I  own  to  win  you  to 
Christ.  I  would  gladly  change  my  methods,  if 
that  would  win  you.  I  would  ask  God  to  put  more 
pathos  into  my  voice,  if  that  would  bring  you  to 
Christ.  Come!  Come!  God  wants  you.  If  you 
have  sinned,  He  still  loves  you  dearly.  Don't  go 
on  sinning  against  His  love.  There  is  a  story  of 
a  boy  up  near  New  York,  who  was  arrested  for 
murder.  They  took  him  to  the  prison  and  sent  im- 
mediately for  his  mother.  She  came  hurrying  to 
her  boy,  and  they  allowed  her  to  go  into  the  cell 
alone  with  him.  As  she  sat  beside  him  with  her 
arms  around  him,  she  said :  "  Tell  your  mother. 
Did  you  do  it  ?  "  He  was  just  about  to  confess 
that  he  had  done  it,  when  he  caught  a  look  on  her 
face,  and  he  said:  "Mother,  I  didn't  do  it."  She 
brushed  away  her  tears  and  started  out  of  the  cell. 
Friends  came  to  see  her,  and  she  said :  "  It  is  very 
kind  of  you  to  sympathize  with  me,  but  my  Jim 
did  not  do  it.  He  never  did  it."  The  trial  came 
on.  The  judge  and  the  prosecuting  attorney  said 
that  if  the  prisoner  would  change  his  plea  and 
acknowledge  his  guilt,  they  would  take  into  ac- 
count his  youth  and  his  family  and  lighten  his  sen- 
tence.    The  old  mother  spoke  up  and  said :    "  It 


WHAT  MEN  DO  WITH  THEIR  SINS     137 

is  very  kind  of  jou  to  do  that,  Judge,  but  my  boy 
Jim  never  did  it.  He  told  me  that  he  never  did 
it."  The  trial  went  on,  and  they  convicted  him 
and  sentenced  him  to  die.  As  the  sentence  was 
about  to  be  carried  out,  the  chaplain  went  to  his  cell 
and  said :  "  Jim,  tell  me.  Did  you  do  it  ?  You 
are  alF";'tt  in  eternity.  Did  you  do  it  ?  "  The  boy 
looked  at  him  in  a  frightened  way.  ''  Chaplain,  I 
did  it.  Go  and  tell  mother."  The  chaplain  hur- 
ried away  to  her  house  where  she  sat  with  her  face 
in  her  hands.  He  spoke  to  her,  but  she  never  lifted 
her  head.  He  said :  "  Mother,  Jim  did  it.  He 
says  that  he  did  it."  She  gave  one  great  shudder. 
Then  rising  from  the  chair  and  putting  hpr  hand 
on  the  table,  she  said:  ^"  Chaplain,  gc  back  as/,, 
quickly  as  you  came  and  tell  him  that  with  all  my 
heart  I  love  him.     I  love  him !  " 

I  stand  here  to  tell  you  that  God  in  His  infinite 
mercy  loves  you.  If  you  will  turn  from  your  sin. 
He  will  save  you.  I  cannot  say  anything  more  to 
you.  To-day,  if  you  will  hear  His  voice,  harden 
not  your  heart.     Take  the  Saviour  to-day! 


fM 


XII 

"WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?" 

I  AM  calling  your  attention  to  a  passage  of 
Scripture  which  is  found  in  Jeremiaii 
13:21 — "What  wilt  thou  say  when  he 
shall  punish  thee  ? "  Until  I  read  this  verse  in 
the  light  of  the  marginal  reference,  I  did  not  un- 
derstand it.  It  seemed  to  me  to  be  so  out  of  har- 
mony with  all  that  I  have  learned  of  God.  It  may 
be  so  with  you  also.  There  may  be  an  instinctive 
shrinking  from  this  text.  E'evertheless,  I  beg  you 
to  hear  me  patiently. 

My  message  for  the  most  part  was  suggested  to 
me  by  an  experience  in  New  York.  I  was  invited 
to  sit  one  day  with  one  of  the  judges  of  the  court. 
It  was  a  very  special  day.  The  judge  was  to  sen- 
tence a  number  of  prisoners,  some  of  them  for 
gross  crimes,  and  others  for  minor  offenses.  He 
was  not  only  a  distinguished  jurist,  but  a  very- 
great  Christian  as  well.  He  said  to  me :  "  I  have 
an  idea  that  perhaps  you  will  learn  something  to- 
day that  will  be  of  value  to  you  and  your  hearers." 
And,  truly,  as  I  sat  beside  him  I  learned  a  great 
deal.  I  learned  something,  too,  about  this  text  of 
mine :  "  What  wilt  thou  say  when  He  shall  punish 
thee?" 

138 


"WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?"  139 

You  remember  that  Jeremiah  is  called  the  weep- 
ing prophet.  If  you  understood  sin  as  Jeremiah  . 
understood  it,  perhaps  you  would  weep  too.  I  sup- 
pose that  no  minister  would  covet  the  title  of  weep- 
ing minister.  Tears  are  sometimes  thought  to  be 
an  evidence  of  weakness,  but  anyone  who  knows  the 
sinfulness  of  sin,  how  it  is  blighting  lives  and'" 
breaking  hearts,  is  warranted  in  weeping.  I  can 
understand  how  it  is  that  the  prophet  cried  out: 
"  Oh,  that  my  head  were  waters  and  that  mine  eyes 
were  a  fountain  of  tears,  that  I  might  weep  for  the 
slain  of  the  daughter  of  my  people."  When  you 
study  this  Old  Testament  prophet,  you  find,  too, 
that  he  is  seeking  to  arouse  the  people  by  repeated 
references  to  judgment.  He  says  that  it  shall  be 
a  day  of  wrath.  When  you  think  of  God's  wrath, 
you  must  think  of  His  nature.  Men  are  filled  with 
wrath  because  of  envy  or  weakness  or  sin,  but 
God's  wrath  never  comes  from  any  such  source, 
l^et  sin  is  the  occasion  of  divine  wrath,  so  Jere- 
miah says  that  the  day  of  judgment  will  be  a  day 
of  the  pouring  out  of  vials  on  the  earth.  "  It  is  a 
day,''  he  says,  "  when  men  shall  try  to  flee  from 
God  and  shall  be  as  drunken  men.  The  father 
shall  turn  against  his  son,  and  the  son  against  his 
father,  and  when  men  try  to  escape,  it  shall  be  a 
slippery  path  that  they  travel,  and  the  way  of  es- 
cape shall  be  impossible." 

There  are  two  views  to  take  of  God.     One  is  that 
God  is  a  consuming  fire,  and  the  other  is  that  God 


140  "WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?" 

is  love.  God  is  a  consuming  fire  to  us  when  we 
turn  our  backs  upon  Him,  trample  His  love  be- 
neath our  feet,  spurn  His  mercy,  and  resist  tbe 
power  of  His  Holy  Spirit.  When  these  things  are 
done,  then  God  is  a  consuming  fire.  But  the  mo- 
ment you  turn  to  Christ  and  receive  Him  as  a 
Saviour,  and  accept  pardon  at  His  hands,  from 
that  moment  God  becomes  matchless  love.  So  I 
feel  like  stopping  for  a  moment  to  ask  the  question 
of  the  text:  What  wilt  thou  say  when  He  shall 
punish  thee?  I  want  to  make  it  plain  to  sincere 
Christian  believers  that  they  need  have  no  fear  of 
final  judgment.  We  shall  all  stand  at  the  judg- 
ment bar,  but  they  who  have  accepted  Christ  shall 
have  nothing  to  fear.  You  remember  what  the 
Apostle  Paul  says :  '^  There  is  therefore  now  no 
condemnation  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus." 
Have  you  accepted  Jesus  Christ  as  your  Saviour? 
Do  you  believe  that  He  died  for  you  on  Calvary? 
Well,  if  He  died,  what  was  the  purpose  of  His 
death?  He  took  your  place  under  the  law.  He 
died  in  your  stead.  He  died  that  you  might  live. 
So  do  you  not  see  that  it  would  be  imfair  and  un- 
just for  God  to  accept  Jesus  Christ  as  my  substi- 
tute, answering  every  demand  of  the  law,  and  then 
let  me  stand  trembling  at  the  judgment  bar.  This 
f  text  is  not  for  the  man  who  has  accepted  Jesus 
Christ.  What  wilt  thou  say  when  He  shall  punish 
thee?  It  is  not  my  nature  to  cry  out  concerning 
God's  wrath.     I  prefer  to  speak  of  His  love.     I 


"WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?"  141 

prefer  to  win  men  with  the  thought  of  the  mercy 
of  God  in  Christ.  But  the  preaching  of  love  seems 
sometimes  to  fail.  Love  sometimes  seems  power- 
less. Prayer  sometimes  seems  to  be  in  vain.  To- 
night I  speak  of  wrath  and  punishment.  Some 
have  long  resisted  Him.  My  text  is  for  you — 
What  wilt  thou  say  when  He  shall  punish  thee  ? 

One  day  I  counted  the  number  of  chapters  in 
the   Bible.      If   I   remember   correctly,   there    are    , 
1,189.     Three_jch^pters_tell_jis  .wh^^^        we  came.    1 
1,186  chapters  tell  us  whither  we  are  going,  and 
seek  to  make  us  ready.     There  are  on'y  two  ways  t- 
of  going  out  of  this  world.     You  may  ^o  out  with 
faith,  having  found  Jesus  Christ  and  a  life  of  trust. 
Then  all  is  well.     Your  loved  ones  gather  about 
you  and  witness  your  departure.    They  watch  your 
face  whiten  and  your  eyes  grow  dim.    You  are  safe 
in  the  Lord's  keeping.     As  we  passed  out  of  ISTew  , 
York   harbor   on   our   way   around   the   world   we 
heard  the  voices  of  our  loved  ones  plainly,  then 
not  quite  so  plainly.     Presently  only  half  their  sen- 
tences reached  us.    At  length  we  heard  no  words  at 
all,  but  we  saw  their  waving  hands  and  caught  the 
white  messages  of  their  handkerchiefs.     And  so  it 
will  be  with  you.     Quietly  and  peacefully  you  will 
close  your  eyes  and  go  home.     This  is  well. 

The  other  way  of  going  out  of  the  world  is  to 
go  with  no  Saviour  to  help  you.     ISTo  hope  to  sus-  ; 
tain  you,  no  promises  on  which  to  rest.    The  future 
will  be  dark  to  you  and  full  of  despair,  and  in  your 


142  "WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?" 

heart  you  will  be  saying:  If  I  only  had!  If  I 
only  had !  Answer  me !  What  wilt  thou  say  when 
He  shall  punish  thee?  Have  you  sometimes  seen 
the  clouds  heavy  in  the  morning?  Every  moment 
it  looked  as  if  rain  would  come.  Suddenly,  just 
about  as  the  day  was  dying  and  the  wind  was 
hushed  to  a  whisper,  the  clouds  broke,  the  thunder 
rolled,  and  the  lightning  flashed.  So  it  will  be  with 
men  who  continually  reject  Jesus  Christ.  God  in 
His  mercy  is  holding  back  the  judgment,  but  some 
day,  and  it  may  be  soon,  it  will  come.  What  wilt 
thou  say  when  He  shall  punish  thee  ?  A  miner  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  owner  of  a  big  mine, 
struck  a  rich  lead  one  day.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  day  it  looked  quite  favorable,  and  by  the  close 
of  the  day  it  was  marvellously  rich.  The  follow- 
ing day  he  sent  an  invitation  to  all  his  miner 
friends  to  come  and  rejoice  with  him.  So  they 
came  and  sat  around  his  table.  He  was  from  IN'ew 
England,  and  his  friends  had  sent  him  from  his 
old  home  a  fine  barrel  of  New  England  apples.  He 
"^said  to  his  friends,  some  of  whom  were  Yale  and 
Harvard  men :  "  Friends,  we  are  going  to  have 
an  old  time  treat."  Turning  to  one  of  his  servants, 
he  said :  "  Go  down  in  the  cellar  and  bring  up  the 
apples.'*  The  servant  came  back  laden  with  the 
fruit.  He  went  down  with  a  lighted  candle  and 
came  back  without  it.  The  miner  said  to  him: 
"  Where  did  you  leave  the  light  ?  "  "  Oh,"  he  said, 
"  I  left  it  in  the  cellar  on  a  barrel  of  sand."    With- 


^^WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?"  143 

out  showing  the  least  excitement,  the  miner  walked 
carelessly  to  the  door.  When  he  was  out  of  sight 
of  his  friends,  he  gave  a  sudden  spring  and  reached 
the  candle  in  the  cellar.  It  was  flickering  on  a  bar- 
rel of  blasting  powder.  He  knew  that  in  a  moment 
the  foundations  of  the  mountain  would  shake. 
Catching  up  the  light,  he  was  just  in  time  to  save 
his  own  life  and  the  lives  of  his  friends.  If  I 
could  speak  to-night  as  God  would  have  me  speak, 
if  I  could  perfectly  portray  the  teachings  of  this 
Eook,  if  I  could  help  you  to  feel  that  your  resist- 
ance of  God's  love  and  of  the  gospel  of  His  Son 
is  dangerous !  To-day  may  be  your  last  day,  to- 
morrow may  be  Eternity.  What  wilt  thou  say 
when  He  shall  punish  thee? 

The  word  punish  is  explained  in  the  margin. 
The  text  should  read  somewhat  in  this  way:  What 
wilt  thou  say  when  He  shall  visit  thee  ?  This  verse 
is  a  forerunner  of  that  impressive  message  in  the 
!N'ew  Testament :  "  Be  not  deceived.  God  is  not 
mocked,  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 
he  also  reap."  Bo  you  not  see  ?  Can  you  not  un- 
derstand? The  prophet  is  saying  that  when  the 
last  restraining  influence  is  removed,  when  the  last  ^ 
prayer  has  been  refused,  when  the  last  invitation 
has  been  spurned,  the  question  then  is :  What  wilt 
thou  say  when  He  shall  visit  thee?  I  spoke  of 
sitting  by  the  judge  on  the  bench  and  watching  the 
prisoners  pass  in  front  of  him  to  receive  their  sen- 
tences.    My  mind  went  to  this  text.     One  of  the 


144  "WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?" 

things  I  learned  that  day  has  to  do  with  youth. 
The  judge  said  to  me:  "  Forty-two  per  cent  of  all 
the  sentences  are  upon  boys,  youths  from  sixteen  to 
twenty-one."  'No  doubt  it  is  so  throughout  the  en- 
tire country.     And,  he  added :    "  Not  in  five  years 

-,,'  have  I  passed  a  sentence  upon  a  boy  who  has  been 
faithful  in  the  Sunday  School.  Wlien  they  have 
grown  up  and  left  it,  and  become  too  big  for  it  in 
their  own  estimation,  then  sometimes  they  come  be- 
fore me,  but  not  if  they  have  been  faithful."  Then 
he  said  this  impressive  thing  to  me :  "  As  a  matter 
of  fact  we  have  determined  the  sentences  before 
the  prisoners  appear.  You  see  that  man  coming 
in.  I  am  going  to  tell  him  what  his  sentence  is. 
It  was  decided  last  night."     I  said  to  him :  "  Why, 

.;  judge,  that  is  like  the  Scripture.  ^  He  that  be- 
lieveth  not  is  condemned  already  because  he  hath 
not  believed.'  "  Do  you  see  how  this  is  ?  Con- 
demned already.  But  the  marvellous  thing  about 
God's  judgment  is  that  it  is  reversed  when  we  put 
our  faith  in  His  Son.  Judgment  is  taken  away 
if  we  lift  our  eyes  to  Jesus.    Oh,  how  plain  it  is ! 

Two  men  came  before  the  judge  charged  with 
crimes  of  equal  seriousness.  One  received  his  sen- 
tence immediately,  and  the  other  was  given  another 
A  chance.  I  said:  ^^Why?"  "Well,"  said  the 
judge,  "  the  first  one  had  no  one  to  speak  for  him. 
The  second  one  had  another  judge  to  speak  for 
him.  A  merchant  also  spoke  for  him.  They  have 
presented    extenuating    circumstances."      I    said: 


"WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?"  145 

How  like  the  Saviour  again.  How  like  God's  judg- 
ment. Here  I  am,  weighed  down  with  my  sin,  con- 
demned because  I  have  not  believed  and  taken  my 
stand  for  Christ.  Instantly  Jesus  Christ,  my 
Saviour,  steps  forward  to  take  his  place  at  my 
side.  He  bares  His  wounded  side  and  stretches 
out  His  nail-marked  hands  and  I  go  free.  The  ^- • 
Redeemer  speaks  for  me.  What  wilt  thou  say 
when  He  shall  visit  thee? 

I  have  been  turning  over  the  pages  of  the  New  ^ 
Testament  to  see  what  men  have  said  in  judgment. 
Some  have  tried  to  justify  themselves.  "  Lord,  \/ 
have  we  not  prophesied  in  Thy  name  ?  "  Did  we 
not  do  good  deeds  ?  Were  we  not  kind  and  merci- 
ful? Did  we  not  go  to  church  occasionally?  And 
I  think  I  hear  the  Master  saying  this :  "  Step  into 
the  balances  and  be  weighed.  Let  all  the  motives 
back  of  your  services  be  tested."  Could  you  stand 
this  ?  If  you  ask  me  whether  I  can  stand  it,  I  an- 
swer promptly:  Not  for  a  moment.  But  when  I 
step  in  with  all  my  weaknesses,  and  Christ  steps  in  ^• 
with  me  with  all  His  strength,  then  there  is  all  the 
difference  in  the  world.  Faith  in  Jesus  Christ 
makes  a  difference.  I  turn  again  to  my  Bible,  and 
I  read  that  some  men  cry  out  when  it  is  too  late: 
"  What  have  I  done  ?  "  You  had  your  opportunity, 
but  you  did  not  take  it.  The  door  was  open  for 
you,  but  you  did  not  go  in.  You  knew  your  duty, 
but  you  did  not  do  it.  You  heard  the  warning  and 
you  did  not  heed  it.    You  resisted  the  call,  and  the 


146  "WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?" 

door  was  shut.  Too  late!  Too  late!  Some  men 
will  stand  in  terror  when  God  visits  them.  It  will 
be  as  it  is  described  in  Eevelation — ''  Rocks  and 
hills  fall  on  us  and  hide  us  from  His  face.'^  Onlj 
there  will  be  no  rocks  to  hide  you  in  the  last  judg- 
ment, and  no  hills  to  cover  you.  In  the  judgment 
a  man  will  stand  face  to  face  with  God.  So  many 
prayers,  so  many  sermons,  so  many  strivings,  so 
many  mothers'  tears,  so  many  pleadings  of  a  father, 
— they  will  go  rushing  past  you  in  memory  on  the 
day  of  judgment,  and  you  will  be  speechless.  I 
plead  with  you  to-night  to  turn  to  Christ.  There 
can  never  be  a  better  time  than  this.  God  loves 
you,  and  He  is  ready  to  save  you. 

A  southern  gentleman  sent  his  son  to  a  northern 
university.  Time  went  by,  and  one  day  he  came 
back  again  with  his  diploma,  but,  alas,  he  came  as 
\  an  inebriate.  When  his  mother  kissed  him,  she 
caught  the  smell  of  drink,  and  it  broke  her  heart. 
In  two  weeks  she  died.  The  father  did  all  he  could 
for  his  boy.  He  loved  him  dearly.  It  seemed  al- 
most unbelievable  to  his  neighbours  that  he  could 
go  on  loving  a  son  like  that.  One  morning  the 
father  drove  to  town,  and  as  he  stepped  out  of  his 
carriage  the  drunken  son  came  forward  and  struck 
him.  The  old  man  threw  his  hands  up  to  his  head. 
They  put  him  in  his  carriage,  and  sent  him  home. 
For  a  moment  he  sat  in  the  house,  and  then  he  rose 
and  walked  out  of  the  house  and  crossed  the 
grounds  to  a  grave.    There  he  got  on  his  knees,  and 


"WHAT  WILT  THOU  SAY?"  147 

burying  his  face  in  his  hands  he  cried  aloud.  They 
aay  that  the  neighbours  heard  him  on  the  next 
place.  His  heart  broke  there.  When  the  boy  came, 
the  old  man  said  to  him:  "You  will  have  to  go 
away.  You  dishonoured  my  name,  and  I  still  loved 
you.  You  killed  your  mother,  and  still  I  loved  you. 
But  this  morning  you  struck  me,  and  you  will  have 
to  go  away."  A  friend  of  mine  who  knew  the  cir- 
cumstances told  me  that  the  boy  turned  away  and, 
staggered  down  the  road.  He  became  a  wanderer 
in  the  world.  But  God  is  a  better  father  than  that. 
To-night  He  is  saying  to  you :  You  have  spumed 
my  love  and  still  I  love  you.  You  have  resisted 
my  Son,  but  I  have  not  taken  my  love  away  from 
you.  You  have  said  ''  no  "  a  thousand  times  to  my 
gracious  invitations,  but  still  I  love  you.  I  love 
you !  He  pleads  with  you  to  turn.  To-night  you 
can  do  it,  this  very  minute. 


XIII 
A  NEGLECTED  TRUTH 

MY  text  is  very  familiar,  although  it 
speaks  of  a  much  neglected  truth — 
John  3 :  7 — "  Ye  must  be  born  again." 
If  your  Bible  is  open  before  you,  you  will  notice 
l^iat  the  marginal  reading  says:  "  Ye  must  be  born 
from  above."  Salvation  is  not  a  human  effort.  I 
am  saved,  not  because  I  stiniggie  nor  because  I  at- 
tempt to  do  good.     ]^either  do  I  become  a  Chris- 

^  tian  by  giving  generously  of  my  means.  These 
things  are  all  worthy,  but  they  do  not  bring  salva- 
tion. We  must  be  bom  again.  Jesus  said  this,  and 
Jesus  knew.  What  a  marvellous  provision  for 
salvation.  It  goes  to  the  root  of  things.  People 
sometimes  say:  I  wish  I  could  begin  life  all  over 
again.  I  wish  I  could  take  the  experience  of  past 
years,  all  that  I  learned  in  college,  all  that  I  have 
learned  in  the  school  of  adversity,  and  then  start 
life  all  over.  Just  this  you  may  do  if  you  are  not 
yet  a   Christian   and  will  accept  the   teaching  of 

!  God's  Word.  Jesus  had  in  mind  the  starting  of 
life  all  over  again  when  He  said,  you  must  be  bom 
again. 

There  are  few  dhapters  in  the  Bible  with  which 
we  are  so  familiar  as  the  third  chapter  of  the  Gos- 

148 


A  NEGLECTED  TRUTH  149 

pel  of  John.  You  know  it  contains  the  great  state- 
ment of  the  sixteenth  verse,  which  one  of  the  re- 
formers said  was  the  gospel  in  a  nutshell.  If  we 
should  lose  the  rest  of  the  Bible  and  had  only  this 
verse  left,  we  would  know  God's  love  and  would  un- 
derstand something  about  the  death  of  Jesus.  It 
was  in  this  same  conversation  with  Nicodemus  that 
Jesus  said :  ''  Ye  must  be  born  again.''  I  confess 
that  there  is  no  doctrine  in  the  Scripture  which  I 
find  so  difficult  to  make  people  understand  as  this 
subject  of  regeneration.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a  doc- 
trine that  can  be  easily  illustrated. 

Some  years  ago  we  were  holding  a  meeting  not 
far  from  my  home  in  New  York  State.  There  was 
an  old  man  in  the  village  who  for  years  had  never 
darkened  the  doors  of  the  church.  He  was  passion- 
ately fond  of  music.  He  heard  about  the  singing, , 
and  with  a  hungry  heart  he  made  his  way  to  tbfe 
place  of  worship.  When  he  saw  the  crowds  he 
started  to  go  back  to  his  haunts  of  sin,  but  the  old 
hunger  for  music  checked  him  and  he  staggered 
back  to  the  door.  Despair  had  gripped  him.  His  , 
wife  was  dead,  and  his  children  were  in  the  poor- 
house.  With  great  hesitation  he  pushed  the  door 
open.  The  only  vacant  seat  in  the  building  was 
away  at  the  front.  Someone  led  the  old  man  to  that 
seat.  I  do  not  know  that  he  heard  anything  of  my 
sermon,  but  he  was  all  attention  to  the  singing. 
When  the  appeal  came,  his  hand  was  instantly 
lifted.     When  I  invited  the  people  to  come  to  the 


150  A  NEGLECTED  TRUTH 

inquiry  room,  he  was  the  first  to  respond.  He  was 
on  his  knees  when  I  entered.  I  laid  my  hand  on  his 
gray  head,  and  said  to  him :  "  Mr.  Firth,  you  may 
take  Jesus  Christ  to-night  if  you  will,  and  if  you 
take  Him,  He  will  change  your  life."  The  old  man 
hesitated  a  moment,  dropped  his  head  a  little  lower, 
.  and  I  heard  him  say:  '^  God  be  merciful  to  me  a 
j  sinner."  He  rose  to  his  feet  a  changed  man.  To 
the  day  of  his  death,  fifteen  years  afterwards,  he 
served  his  Master  faithfully.  Only  once  was  he 
tempted  to  drink.  Crossing  a  bridge  one  day,  the 
temptation  came  to  him.  He  fairly  ran  to  his 
home,  called  out  to  God  for  help,  and  escaped 
temptation.  They  made  him  a  church  official  in  the 
church  where  he  was  converted.  He  stood  up  be- 
fore a  large  audience  and  testified  that  God  had 
taken  away  the  appetite  for  drink  and  had  given 
him  a  new  name  and  a  new  nature.  I  give  this  as 
an  illustration  of  my  text.  I  am  not  discouraged 
when  men  tell  me  that  they  are  sinful  men,  for  I 
\know  that  God  can  make  them  over  and  give  them 
a  new  start.  It  is  because  I  believe  this  that  I 
bring  you  this  text — ^'  Ye  must  be  bom  again." 

People  often  say  to  me  that  they  are  troubled  by 
perplexing  questions.  I  talked  last  night  to  two 
intelligent  men,  both  of  them  honestly  interested 
and  desirous  of  becoming  Christians,  but  I  found 
them  sorely  troubled  by  some  questions.  I  said  to 
them:  No  man's  faith  has  ever  been  increased  if 
he  just  sat  and  waited.     No  man  has  ever  come  to 


A  NEGLECTED  TRUTH  151 

know  Christ  as  a  Saviour  unless  he  has  started  for- 
ward. The  mysteries  of  the  Bible  are  hard  things 
to  understand.  The  wonderful  doctrine  of  atone- 
ment !  Things  like  these  will  clear  up  the  moment 
you  start  and  turn  your  face  towards  God  and  move 
in  the  line  of  His  teaching.  Some  years  ago  a  man 
came  to  Mr.  Moody  with  a  long  list  of  questions. 
They  seemed  serious  questions  to  him,  although 
some  of  them  were  not  important.  He  said :  "  Mr. 
Moody,  if  you  will  answer  these  questions,  I  will 
become  a  Christian."  Mr.  Moody,  who  knew  him, 
said :  '^  See  here,  I  will  make  you  a  proposition. 
If  you  will  give  your  heart  sincerely  to  Jesus  Christ 
to-nig'ht  and  accept  Him  as  your  Saviour,  come  to- 
morrow morning  and  I  will  answer  every  question 
you  have  propounded.''  That  night  the  man  be- 
came a  Christian.  The  following  morning  he  came 
to  Mr.  Moody,  and,  without  waiting,  he  said: 
"  Mr.  Moody,  this  is  the  most  remarkable  thing  I 
have  ever  heard  of.  You  do  not  need  to  answer 
my  questions.  Every  question  that  troubled  me  last 
night  is  plain  this  morning."  Let  anyone  start 
toward  Jesus  Christ  with  a  sincere  faith,  and  the 
dark  things  will  begin  to  grow  light.  Sins  that 
have  bound  will  begin  to  snap.  Passions  that  have 
hindered  you  will  be  overpowered.  Come  to  Jesus ! 
"  Ye  must  be  born  again." 

If  you  will  turn  to  this  chapter  again,  you  will 
see  what  Jesus  says — "  Except  a  man  be  bom  of 
water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the 


152  A  NEGLECTED  TEUTH 

Kingdom  of  God."  I  am  not  at  all  clear  in  my 
own  mind  that  the  reference  here  is  to  the  water  of 
baptism.  Well,  you  ask  me  naturally,  what  does 
it  mean  ?  Of  course,  you  need  not  accept  this  state- 
ment of  mine,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  when  Jesus 
was  speaking  to  this  man  who  had  had  an  Old 
Testament  training,  he  must  have  spoken  of  water 
as  it  is  spoken  of  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  an  em- 
blem or  symbol  of  the  Word  of  God.  So  it  is  as  if 
He  said  to  IsTicodemus :  "  Except  a  man  be  bom 
of  the  Word  and  of  the  Spirit."  This,  too,  is  what 
the  Apostle  Peter  says :  "  Being  born  again  not  of 
corruptible  seed,  but  of  incorruptible  by  the  Word 
of  God  which  liveth  and  abideth  forever."  I  hold 
this  Book  before  you.  It  is  God's  Word.  It  is  the 
seed  of  life.  If  you  would  be  saved,  just  take  this 
Word  into  your  heart  and  hold  it  there.  There  are 
some  things  you  may  be  unable  to  explain,  but  hold 
it  in  your  heart.  There  may  be  mysteries  here,  but 
stand  upon  it  just  the  same  and  God's  Word  will  do 
its  work.    You  will  be  bom  again. 

I  do  not  expect  much  of  the  man  who  professes 
to  be  a  Christian  and  does  not  take  his  stand  upon 
the  sure  Word  of  God,  and  for  this  reason:  If  he 
stands  on  emotion,  emotion  will  pass.  If  he  stands 
on  feelings,  feelings  may  change.  If  he  should 
stand  by  the  singing  of  this  great  choir,  the  choir 
will  soon  be  a  memory.  But  if  he  stands  on  this 
Book,  believing  its  promises  and  accepting  its  faith, 


A  NEGLECTED  TRUTH  153 

heaven  and  earth  maj  pass  away,  but  this  Word 

will  never  pass  away. 

Some  years  ago  there  came  to  our  meetings  a 
man  who  afterwards  became  a  bishop.  I  was  ask- 
ing the  people  to  say  how  they  had  become  Chris- 
tians, and  he  gave  bis  experience.  Said  he :  "I 
was  reared  in  a  family,  every  member  of  whicb  was 
a  perfect  battery  of  emotion.  I  was  not.  We  never 
had  a  revival  that  they  did  not  call  me  to  the  altar, 
but  I  never  quite  found  myself  in  sympathy  with  it. 
I  entered  college,  still  not  a  Christian.  One  day 
I  was  seated  under  a  tree  on  the  campus,  preparing 
a  New  Testament  lesson.  It  was  John,  the  third 
chapter.  I  came  to  the  sixteenth  verse,  and  when  I 
read  it,  it  seemed  new.  I  rose  to  my  feet,  opened 
my  little  Testament  again,  and  read  it  over  once 
more.  *  For  God  so  loved  the  world.'  I  said,  that 
is  big  enough  for  me.  *  That  He  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son.'  That  is  provision  enough  for  me. 
'  That  whosoever  believeth  in  Him.'  Surely  that  is 
definite  enough  for  me.  *  Should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life.'  That  is  sure  enough  for 
me."  And,  said  the  man  who  afterwards  became  a 
bishop :  "  I  took  my  little  Testament  in  my  hand 
and  held  it  above  my  head,  and  solemnly  I  said  these 
words :  ^  Oh,  God,  standing  on  this  campus  to-day, 
I  accept  this  Word  which  Thou  hast  spoken.  I  will 
hold  to  it,  so  long  as  I  live.  When  I  die,  I  will  take 
it  to  the  judgment  with  me,  and  if  I  am  not  saved 
it  will  go  hard  with  Thy  Book.'    And  suddenly  my 


154  A  NEGLECTED  TRUTH 

tears  were  running  down  and  I  was  crying  as  if  my 
heart  would  break.  I  rushed  into  the  building  to 
tell  my  friends  that  I  was  saved."  Then  he  added : 
^^  I  have  been  a  perfect  battery  of  emotion  myself 
ever  since." 

I  am  trying  to  make  all  this  plain  this  evening. 
I  am  so  anxious  to  have  everyone  understand.  This 
is  a  foundation  principle :  "  Ye  must  be  bom 
again."  "  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of 
the  Spirit."  What  does  this  mean?  The  Spirit 
of  God  is  in  this  world,  revealing  Jesus  Christ, 
making  Him  plain  to  men,  making  His  teachings 
quick  and  powerful.  I  know  quite  well  that  some 
men  are  far  more  eloquent  than  I.  I  know  that 
many  have  deeper  scholarship  than  I,  but  I  hope 
that  no  man  can  surpass  me  in  loyalty  to  Jesus 
Christ.  When  I  hold  Him  up  before  you  this  even- 
ing, and  your  hearts  are  stirred  and  your  tears 
start,  and  you  move  forward,  all  this  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  my  text.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  at  work! 
He  takes  the  hymns,  He  uses  the  incidents  and  the 
illustrations,  He  brings  to  memory  your  mother's 
prayers.  He  is  here,  and  all  you  need  to  do  is  to 
surrender  to  God. 

I  was  preaching  in  ]N'ew  York  one  time,  and  I 
saw  a  splendid  man  move  forward  at  one  of  our 
meetings  and  confess  Christ.  I  went  to  my  home 
with  a  feeling  of  satisfaction  because  I  believed 
that  I  had  been  used  of  God  to  win  a  great  soul  to 
Christ.     The  following  day  was  a  day  of  prayer. 


A  NEGLECTED  TRUTH  155 

After  I  liad  preached  my  sermon,  as  the  people 
were  leaving,  down  the  aisle  came  my  man  of  the 
night  before.     He  held  a  little  boy  in  his  arms. 
The  child's  face  was  white  and  thin.    He  carried  a 
little  pair  of  crutches.     I  could  see  the  little  fel- 
low's leg  swinging  against  his  father's  side.     The 
father  put  the  little  fellow  down  gently  on  the  plat- 
form, and  walked  over  to  me.     "  I  am  going  to  in- 
troduce you  to  my  little  Joe,"  he  said.     Then  in  an 
undertone  he  added :    "  Joe  cannot  stay  with  us 
long."    He  did  not  need  to  tell  me  that.    The  little 
fellow  had  crossed  a  street  in  New  York  and  had 
been  struck  by  a  truck.     Tuberculosis  of  the  hip 
joint  followed.    As  his  father  brought  the  little  fel- 
low forward,  I  saw  the  perfect  love  of  his  heart  for 
the   child.      Is   there    anything  that   can   make   a 
father's  face  quite  so  beautiful,  is  there  anything 
that  can  make  his  arms  quite  so  gentle,  as  a  little 
lame  child  that  he  calls  his  own  ?    I  took  the  boy's 
hand.     I  can  almost  feel  it  still.    His  father  said: 
"  This  is  little  Joe.    He  was  the  means  of  my  con- 
version."    I  remember  the  feeling  of  disappoint- 
ment that  entered  my  heart.     I  thought  that  I  had 
been  instrumental  in  his  conversion.     The  father 
went  on :   "  Every  night  my  little  boy  has  been  say- 
ing to  his  mother :    ^  You  take  father  and  I  will 
stay  at  home  and  pray,'  and  every  night  when  we 
came  home  I  would  hear  the  thud,  thud  of  his  little 
crutches  on  the  hall  floor.     Then  the  door  would 
swing  open  and  he  would  spring  into  my  arms  and 


156  A  NEGLECTED  TRUTH 

say :  '  Father,  did  you  come  ? '  But  last  night 
when  I  put  my  latchkey  into  the  door  I  heard  him 
coming;  and  when  he  sprang  into  my  arms,  he 
never  asked  me  at  all;  he  just  buried  his  little  white 
face  in  my  neck  and  began  to  cry  out :  ^  Oh,  father, 
you  came !    You  came !    I  knew  you  would.'  " 

And  this  is  what  the  text  means.  The  Spirit  of 
God  takes  a  memory,  a  face,  a  lock  of  hair ;  it  takes 
a  baby's  smile,  or  a  mother's  death;  it  takes  this 
marvellous  Word.  It  takes  the  sound  of  preaching. 
It  takes  the  testimony  of  some  sincere  Christian. 
"  Ye  must  be  bom  again."  We  cannot  always  trace 
the  influence,  or  mark  out  the  way.  The  Spirit  has 
many  ways  of  touching  human  hearts. 

How  plain  God's  Word  is!  The  smitten  Israel- 
ites in  the  wilderness  looked  on  the  brazen  serpent. 
Some  saw  plainly,  no  doubt;  others  saw  dimly. 
Some  could  hardly  see  at  all,  but  they  turned  their 
eyes,  all  of  them,  towards  the  uplifted  serpent,  and 
they  were  all  healed.  You  do  not  need  to  come  to 
Jesus  as  I  came.  I  came  to  Him  quietly.  You 
may  come  to  Him  with  a  shout  or  a  sob.  You  may 
come  with  powerful  emotion,  or  you  may  come  with 
a  stiU  heart,  but  you  need  to  come.  To-night,  if  I 
can  persuade  you  to  come  right  now  where  you  are 
sitting,  you  may  know  at  once  what  it  means  to  be 
bom  again.  Oh,  if  I  could  persuade  you!  How 
can  you  stay  back  ? 

A  young  girl  came  down  the  aisle  in  another  city. 
One  of  the  ministers  said :   "It  cannot  be.     Yes,  it 


A  NEGLECTED  TEUTH  157 

is.  She  is  tlie  daughter  of  the  most  prominent 
judge  of  this  city/^  She  was  there  but  a  moment, 
and  when  I  looked  again  she  was  gone.  The  min- 
ister was  greatly  concerned.  He  thought  that  some 
worker  had  offended  her,  but  she  was  still  in  the 
building.  She  had  gone  straight  to  her  father, 
thrown  her  arms  around  his  neck,  put  her  face 
against  his,  and  sobbed  out  her  words.  The  minis- 
ter found  her  there,  and  heard  her  saying:  "  Father, 
I  cannot  stay  there  without  you.  I  cannot  stay 
there  without  you."  The  distinguished  man  rose, 
walked  down  the  aisle,  and  took  his  seat  at  the 
front.  I  want  you  to  do  that.  Your  mother  has 
come.  Your  wife  has  come.  Your  child  has  come. 
Why  do  you  not  come  to-night  ?  How  can  you  stay 
away?  How  can  you  resist  Him?  How  can  you 
shut  your  eyes  to  Christ  ?  "  Greater  love  hath  no 
man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his 
friends.  "  But  God  commendeth  His  love  toward 
us,  in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died 
for  us."    How  can  you  spurn  Him  ? 


XIV 
"IS  IT  JSrOTHmG  TO  YOU?" 

ITJJKN  to  an   Old  Testament  book  for  my 
text,  Lamentations  1 :  12 — '^  Is  it  nothing 
to  you,  all  ye  that  pass  by  ? ''     My  subject 
,    is  Indijference, 

Jerusalem  was  beautiful  for  situation.  In  the 
day  of  its  glory  it  was  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth, 
yet  at  the  time  of  the  text  it  was  in  desolation  and 
despair.  For  some  unaccountable  reason  the  people 
were  indifferent.  Temples  and  walls  and  houses 
were  down.  Yet  as  they  passed  along  the  highways, 
there  were  some  who  had  a  sneer  upon  their  faces. 
They  even  cast  stones  at  the  ruins.  So  Jeremiah, 
who  has  been  called  the  weeping  prophet^  realizing 
the  condition  of  the  people,  spoke  to  them  in  the 
words  of  the  text — "  Is  it  nothing  to  you,  all  ye 
that  pass  by  ?  " 

Really,  it  is  hard  to  understand  indifference. 
Especially  is  it  difficult  to  understand  indifference 
^\  to  Christ,  and  indifference  to  the  spiritual  interests 
of  others.  A  little  while  ago,  when  one  section  of 
j5<"*'jjv^pur  country  was  covered  with  floods,  an  appeal  was 
made  in  New  York  for  funds.  In  a  single  morning 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  were 
contributed.  This  we  can  understand.  I  remem- 
ber when  we  were  going  around  the  world,  and  were 

158 


''m  IT  NOTHING  TO  YOU?"  159 

in  a  beautiful  harbour,  I  was  gazing  one  day  at  tbe 
hills  and  the  sky,  when  I  saw  some  people  reading 
a  newspaper.  I  went  over  to  them  carelessly,  and 
in  great  headlines,  larger  than  this  book  in  my 
hands,  I  read  a  sentence  announcing  the  sinking  of 
the  Titanic,  Faces  were  white.  Some  men  grew 
sick.  I  myself  thought  that  I  would  faint,  for 
some  of  my  friends  were  on  the  ship.  All  over  the 
world  there  was  a  wave  of  sympathy.  Everywhere 
interest  was  quickened.  Funds  were  quickly  forth- 
coming for  those  who  needed  help.  Is  it  not 
strange  that  in  this  city  there  are  thousands  of  men 
and  women  without  Christ,  and  we  who  are  Chris- 
tians are  not  much  concerned  about  them  ?  If  they 
should  die  they  would  be  hopeless.  If  they  should 
go  out  into  eternity  this  evening,  their  blood  would 
be  on  our  heads  and  hands.  Is  it  not  strange  that 
we  sit  with  folded  arms  and  sealed  lips?  I  think 
I  can  forgive  a  minister  almost  anything.  I  could 
forgive  him  if  he  were  without  culture  or  great  in- 
tellectual ability.  I  know  I  could  forgive  him  if 
he  were  without  eloquence.  But  I  cannot  forgive 
a  minister  who  is  not  on  fire  with  a  passion  for 
souls.  I  am  appealing  not  only  to  you  who  stand 
in  the  pulpit,  but  to  you  who  are  in  the  pews  also,  y 
There  is  only  one  tiling  needed  here  now.  We  have 
a  splendid  union  of  ministers  and  churches.  The 
thinking  people  of  the  city  are  behind  these  meet- 
ings. If  I  could  be  assured  this  evening  that  you 
who  are  believers  would  go  back  to  your  homes  and 


160  "IS  IT  NOTHING  TO  YOU?" 

fall  upon  your  knees  and  never  rise  until  you  had 
placed  yourselves  at  God's  disposal,  then  I  should 
prophesy  one  of  the  most  wonderful  miracles  of 
grace  I  have  ever  seen. 

So  I  am  preaching  to  you  to-night  on  indiffer- 
,  ence.  Is  it  nothing  to  you  that  men  are  in  danger  ? 
Is  it  nothing  to  you  that  the  fields  are  white  with 
the  harvest  ?  Is  it  nothing  to  you  that  a  thousand 
people  could  be  brought  to  Christ  in  a  week?  Is 
it  nothing  to  you  that  to-morrow  may  be  the  begin- 
ning of  eternity  ? 

I  want  to  speak  very  frankly.  In  the  light  of  the 
.  text  I  ask  first  of  all:  How  can  you  be  indifferent 
Z'""'  to  God?  I  speak  first  of  God.  How  can  you  be 
indifferent  to  Him  when  you  have  His  Word  ?  Do 
'.  you  really  believe  the  Bible?  Tell  me  honestly,  do 
you  believe  the  Bible  ?  Well,  if  you  do,  tell  me  what 
you  think  of  this :  "  He  that  believeth  not  is  con- 
demned already."  Or  what  do  you  think  of  this: 
"It  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die  and  after 
this  the  judgment.*'  Or  what  do  you  think  about 
this :  "  I  saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  Him  that 
sat  upon  it,  from  whose  face  the  heaven  and  earth 
fled  away  and  the  books  were  opened."  I  believe 
that  if  I  could  bring  you  face  to  face  with  the 
teachings  of  God's  Word,  you  would  go  forth  to 
shake  this  city  for  Him.  "  Is  it  nothing  to  you, 
all  ye  that  pass  by  ? "  Do  you  feel  that  God  is  so 
merciful  that  He  is  going  to  let  you  shirk  your  re- 
sponsibility; that  He  is  going  to  permit  you  to  be 


"IS  IT  NOTHING  TO  YOU?"  161 

indifferent  to  your  children  and  unmindful  of  the 
spiritual  condition  of  your  friends  ?  Listen  to  the  ^ 
words  of  Jesus,  when  He  commands  you  to  go  into 
the  fields  that  are  white  to  the  harvest.  "  Is  it 
nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that  pass  by  ? ''  Do  you 
imagine  that  while  there  is  a  responsibility  upon 
me  to  preach  and  upon  your  ministers  to  preach 
and  work, — do  you  imagine  that  you  yourself  are 
free?  Can  you  find  a  verse  of  Scripture  to  stand 
on  to  justify  you  in  this  faith  ?  There  is  as  much 
obligation  on  me  as  on  you,  on  you  as  on  your  min- 
isters, and  Sunday  School  teachers.  When  a  spirit 
of  concern  takes  possession  of  us,  such  concern  as 
will  drive  sleep  from  our  eyes  and  send  us  after 
our  friends,  then  we  shall  see  wonderful  things. 

Is  it  nothing  to  you  that  in  this  city  five  hundred 
wait  for  some  man's  tears,  some  man's  hand,  some  ^-^ 
man's  invitation.  Well,  you  think  that  there  is 
time  enough.  Some  of  you  are  saying  this.  You 
are  saying,  some  day  I  will  do  this.  You  have  not 
spoken  to  your  friend,  even  to  your  own  boy,  but 
you  expect  to  do  so.  You  have  not  spoken  to  the 
commercial  salesman  who  comes  to  your  store,  but 
you  expect  to  speak  to  him  some  day.  Some  day 
you  will  not  rise  from  your  bed.  Some  morning 
they  will  wait  for  you  at  the  breakfast  table.  Some 
morning  your  boy  will  mount  the  stairs  to  your 
room  and  push  open  the  door,  and  then  he  will  go 
rushing  down  the  stairs  again  to  his  mother,  and 
say:   ^^  Father  is  dead."    I  am  not  trying  to  appeal 


162  *as  IT  NOTHING  TO  YOU?" 

to  your  fears,  but  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  appeal 
to  your  emotions.  I  am  myself  emotional.  I  think 
it  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  stand  with  one's  heart 
full  of  feeling  between  God  and  dying  men. 

To-morrow  may  find  you  in  eternity.  Is  it 
nothing  to  you  that  the  time  is  short?  I  ask  an- 
other question:  Would  you  be  prepared  if  you 
should  have  to  stand  face  to  face  with  God  to- 
morrow ?  I  am  not  now  questioning  your  personal 
acceptance  of  God.  I  am  not  now  questioning  your 
position  in  the  Church,  but  I  am  asking  about  what 
you  have  done  for  others.  You  have  children  at 
your  table.  You  have  a  man  working  for  you. 
There  are  many  whom  you  know  intimately,  and 
you  have-  never  said  a  word  to  any  of  them  about 
Christ.  What  can  you  say  about  this  when  you 
stand  face  to  face  with  God? 

I  cannot  understand  how  anyone  can  be  indiffer- 
^ent  to  Christ.  There  was  an  old  man  in  my  church 
in  New  York  State.  He  was  taking  me  out  one 
day  to  see  some  work  that  he  was  doing,  and  as  we 
went  along  he  told  me  of  an  experience  he  once 
had  in  Cork,  Ireland.  He  said :  ^^  I  was  standing 
on  the  ground  looking  at  a  building  and  saw  that 
a  ladder  was  going  to  fall.  Two  men  were  on  the 
last  rung.  I  put  my  hand  to  my  mouth  and 
shouted:  'Men,  step  aside! '  They  were  near  the 
edge  of  a  scaffold.  One  stepped  aside  safely,  but 
the  other  lost  his  balance  and  fell  from  the  third 
story.     I  saw  him  coming  down,  but  I  was  rooted 


"IS  IT  NOTHING  TO  YOU?"  163 

to  the  spot.  I  could  not  move.  There  was  a  man 
by  my  side  who  stretched  out  his  arms  and  caught 
the  falling  man.  The  man  who  fell  was  scarcely 
injured,  but  the  man  who  caught  him  had  his  arms 
broken  and  driven  into  their  sockets.  His  spine, 
too,  was  twisted  out  of  shape.  They  carried  him 
to  a  hospital."  Eagerly  I  asked  my  friend :  "  What 
became  of  him  ?  "  He  replied :  ^'  He  still  lives.  I 
was  in  Cork  a  few  summers  ago  and  saw  him  work- 
ing his  way  along  the  streets  of  the  city.  A  terrible 
sight  to  see !  "  Then  it  suddenly  occurred  to  me  to 
ask  about  the  man  whose  life  he  had  saved.  I  wish 
you  could  have  seen  him  when  I  asked  the  question. 
He  told  me  that  the  man  he  had  saved  had  made 
over  half  his  property  to  his  family,  and  had  en- 
tered into  a  covenant  to  give  him  half  of  all  the 
money  he  ever  made.  Fine,  wasn't  it?  What  if 
he  had  told  me  that  the  man  had  turned  his  bacK 
upon  him?  But  wait!  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
CEime  into  this  world  and  lived  and  suffered  and 
died  to  save  me.  Let  me  tell  you.  I  think  I  ought 
to  be  busy,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  for  Him. 
I  think  I  ought  to  go  up  and  down  the  streets  and 
into  the  shops  to  tell  men  about  Him.  Oh,  if  we 
can  get  that  spirit  to-day,  the  work  will  be  won- 
derful. 

There  are  three  illustrations  with  which  I  hurry 
to  a  close.  They  are  scriptural.  Jeremiah  9 :  1 — 
'^  Oh  that  my  head  were  waters  and  mine  eyes  a 
fountain  of  tears,  that  I  might  weep  day  and  night 


164  "IS  IT  NOTHING  TO  YOU?'' 

for  the  slain  of  the  daughter  of  mj  people."  It  is 
a  picture  of  sin.  Do  jou  know  that  not  in  all  the 
-World's  history  has  there  been  such  sin  as  to-day. 
Bo  you  know  that  your  boys  cannot  walk  the  streets 
without  having  injury  done  to  their  souls.  Your 
:  girls  cannot  go  about  without  seeing  things  that 
mar  their  spirits.  It  is  fifty  times  harder  for  your 
boy  to  be  true  than  it  was  for  you  when  you  were 
a  boy.  There  are  ten  thousand  ways  leading 
straight  to  perdition.  How  can  any  of  us  be  indif- 
ferent to  sin?  How  can  any  of  us  be  careless  of 
the  slain  of  the  daughter  of  the  people  ? 

The  second  illustration  is  this:  It  is  that  pic- 
ture in  the  New  Testament  where  the  Jews  are 
stoning  Jesus.  A  little  further  on  in  the  narrative 
it  says  that  the  Jews  took  up  stones  again  with 
which  to  stone  Him.  His  blessed  face  was  bruised 
before  the  time,  and  the  blood  gushed  out  and  fell 
upon  His  breast.  Then  it  was  that  Jesus  said  in 
His  tenderest  way :  "  Many  good  works  have  I 
showed  you  from  my  Father,  for  which  of  these  do 
you  stone  me  ? "  I  think  it  would  be  better  even 
to  stone  Jesus  than  to  be  indifferent  to  Him. 
The  third  illustration  is  where  St.  Paul  says: 
^  "I  am  willing  to  become  accursed  for  my  breth- 
ren." These  are  the  words  of  a  man  who  was  living 
for  other  people.  How  can  any  of  us  be  indifferent 
to  people  in  the  sight  of  God  ?  There  is  one  prayej 
that  I  want  you  to  offer  for  me.  I  have  been  a  long 
time  in  evangelistic  work.     Perhaps  longer  than  al- 


"IS  IT  NOTHING  TO  YOU?"  165 

most  anybody  now  in  the  field.  My  time  may  be 
short.  I  do  not  know.  The  prayer  I  have  been  of- 
fering is  the  one  I  want  you  to  make  for  me,  that 
I  may  preach  this  year  with  a  broken  heart  because 
people  are  lost.  Is  it  nothing  to  you?  You  Sun- 
day School  teachers,  tell  me,  is  it  nothing  to  you 
that  your  scholars  are  out  of  Christ?  I  sat  years 
ago  in  a  Methodist  Sunday  School,  in  Richmond, 
Ind.,  by  the  side  of  a  little  old-fashioned  woman. 
Some  one  was  speaking  from  the  platform,  who 
that  somebody  was  I  cannot  find  out  now,  but  I  re- 
member what  he  said.  He  said :  "  Stand  up  and 
confess  Christ."  The  little  old-fashioned  woman 
looked  at  me  and  said :  "  Wilbur,  better  stand," 
and  when  I  did  not  respond,  she  put  her  arm  under 
my  elbow  and  lifted  me  and  I  arose.  That  little 
old-fashioned  woman  still  lives  in  Indiana.  I  heard 
from  her  the  other  day,  and  she  said :  "  I  am  glad 
I  put  my  fingers  under  your  elbow  and  lifted.''  Is 
it  nothing  to  you,  teacher,  that  in  your  class  there 
is  a  boy  who  might  some  day  preach  the  gospel  or 
sing  the  songs  of  Zion?  Is  it  nothing  to  you, 
fathers  and  mothers,  that  you  have  a  boy  in  your  ^ 
home  who  might  some  day  shake  a  continent  for 
God? 

I  said  to  my  church  officers  in  New  York  City 
one  day :  "  How  many  have  you  won  to  Christ  ?  " 
One  man,  a  banker,  replied :  "  If  you  will  excuse 
me,  I  will  go  home.  I  have  four  boys.  One  of 
them  is  a  deacon  in  the  church,  but  I  have  not 


166  "IS  IT  NOTHING  TO  YOU?" 

spoken  to  the  others  about  their  souls."  He  went 
home  and  went  up  to  the  room  where  the  boys  were 
sleeping,  and  bending  down  he  kissed  one  of  them. 
Then  he  said  to  him :  ^'  My  boy,  I  have  come  home 
to  ask  you  to  become  a  Christian."  I  took  that  boy 
and  one  of  his  brothers  into  the  church  the  next 
Sunday.  Is  it  nothing  to  you  that  there  are  boys 
and  girls  very  near  to  you  who  ought  to  be  brought 
to  Christ  ? 

Is  it  nothing  to  you  that  up  and  down  the  streets 
of  this  city  men  are  walking,  bound  with  passions, 
held  by  sin,  hurt  by  the  influences  of  the  devil  ? 
Tell  me,  is  it  nothing  to  you  ?  Is  it  nothing  to  you  ? 
Down  in  one  of  the  southern  cities  where  we  were 
working  there  was  a  young  doctor  who  had  gradu- 
ated with  highest  honors  in  Philadelphia.  He  was 
beginning  to  win  renown  as  a  surgeon.  No  doubt 
he  would  have  become  famous.  In  an  unguarded 
moment  he  began  to  drink.  There  was  a  sleeping 
demon  somewhere  in  his  being.  The  young  doctor 
headed  straight  to  destruction.  He  lost  everything. 
One  beautiful  Sunday  morning  in  October  his  little 
boy  and  girl  were  out  gathering  flowers  and  nuts 
in  the  woods.  They  had  a  hammer  to  crack  the 
nuts.  They  had  come  back  into  the  house,  still 
cracking  the  nuts  with  the  hammer.  The  father 
came  in  wild  with  drink  and  turned  like  a  demon 
against  his  wife.  The  little  boy,  hammer  in  hand, 
stepped  forward  and  said :  "  Father,  please  don't 
hurt  mother."     He  killed  both  the  boy  and  his  sis- 


''m  IT  NOTHING  TO  YOU?"  167 

ter,  and  even  took  the  little  baby  from  the  bed  and 
killed  it.  He  was  a  man  of  fine  sensibilities  when 
be  was  sober.  Sin  bad  chained  him.  To-day  he  is 
behind  prison  bars  for  life.  Up  and  down  the 
streets  of  the  town  where  his  wife  had  lived  like  a 
queen,  she  walks  now  earning  her  daily  bread  with 
hardest  toil.  Is  it  nothing  to  yon  that  sin  can  do 
deeds  like  this  ?  Is  it  nothing  to  you  that  there  are 
people  without  hope,  homes  that  are  desolate?  Is 
it  nothing  to  you  that  the  Saviour  is  here  ready  to 
save  men  from  their  sins  ? 

In  a  moment  the  service  will  close.  Mr.  Alex- 
ander will  start  the  singing.  You  may  stay  if  you 
will.  Oh,  my  God !  If  only  there  might  be  in  this 
city  a  wonderful  revival.  Heavenly  Father!  If 
only  there  might  come  to  the  ministers  the  blessing 
their  hearts  are  seeking.  If  only  I  might  have  the 
ability  to  preach  so  that  men's  hearts  would  break. 
If  only  Mr.  Alexander  might  sing  so  as  to  help  men 
feel  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ.  Give  us  such  a 
look  in  the  eye,  such  a  ring  in  the  voice,  as  shall 
make  men  serious.  Oh,  that  there  may  come  to 
fathers  and  mothers  such  concern  for  their  chil- 
dren, that  they  shall  say  with  tears  in  their  eyes: 
Turn  to  God.  Oh,  that  there  may  come  to  minis- 
ters such  a  passion  for  souls  that  tears  may  fill  their 
eyes  and  longing  may  speak  in  their  voices.  Why 
not  ?     Oh,  God !     Why  not  ?     Amen, 


XV 

THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHEIST 

I  AM  preaching  to-night  on  what  I  believe  to 
be  the  most  important  subject  in  the  Bible. 
Of  course,  anything  that  has  to  do  with 
Jesus  Christ  is  of  vast  importance.  My  text  is 
found  in  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter  1 :  19—"  The 
precious  blood  of  Christ.'' 

The  Apostle  Peter,  as  we  all  know,  was  a  fisher- 
man in  his  earlier  days.  It  is  wonderful  that  he 
became  the  leader  and  writer  that  he  was,  and, 
strange  to  say,  the  word  that  he  uses  many  times  is 
this  word — precious.  He  speaks  of  precious  prom- 
ises. He  says  of  Jesus :  "  Unto  you  that  believe. 
He  is  precious."  It  is  just  about  the  last  word  that 
you  would  expect  a  fisherman  to  use.  He  was  prob- 
ably an  uncultured  man  and  a  stranger  to  the 
schools.  Before  he  began  to  follow  Jesus,  he  had 
the  habit  of  profanity.  There  was  an  occasion 
when,  in  an  unguarded  moment,  his  old  habit  took 
hold  upon  him  and  with  an  oath  he  said :  "  I  know 
not  the  man."  All  this  goes  to  show  that  if  one 
accepts  Jesus  Christ  as  a  Saviour  and  yields  him- 
iself  wholly  to  him,  the  Master  will  take  complete 
possession  of  him  and  fashion  him  all  over  again. 
The  power  of  old  habits  will  be  broken  and  the  in- 
fluence of  evil  associations  will  be  overcome.    When 

168 


THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST     169 

once  Jesus  comes  into  our  lives,  we  are  literally  a 
new  creation. 

The  word  of  tlie  text  is  the  word  of  an  artist. 
It  is  the  word  of  a  man  who  feels  power  in  his  soul. 
When  the  Apostle  Peter  caught  a  vision  of  Jesus 
Christ,  his  soul  was  on  fire,  and  he  used  this  word : 
The  precious  hlood  of  Christ !  All  too  little  is  said 
in  these  days  about  the  blood  of  Christ.  Some  of 
us  seem  to  avoid  the  subject  as  much  as  possible. 
The  other  evening  I  spoke  about  the  personality 
and  influence  of  Satan.  If  there  is  one  truth  more 
than  another  that  Satan  would  oppose,  it  is  the 
truth  of  this  text.  If  there  is  one  subject  that  he 
would  like  to  turn  our  minds  away  from,  it  is  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  tells  us  that  we  can  be 
saved  by  reformation,  by  good  deeds.  He  tells  us 
that  we  can  be  saved  by  doing  our  best.  But  all 
the  way  through  the  Kew  Testament  we  find  that 
the  only  way  to  God  is  a  blood-marked  way.  The 
precious  blood  of  Christ !  I  suggest  that  you  take 
a  little  camePs  hair  brush  some  time,  and  a  bottle 
of  red  ink,  and  go  through  the  New  Testament, 
marking  with  red  every  passage  that  has  to  do  with 
sacrifice,  with  the  death  of  Christ.  Every  passage 
that  speaks  of  salvation  as  the  result  of  the  shed- 
ding of  blood.  Well,  you  will  mark  a  great  many 
passages.  You  will  redden  everything  that  deals 
with  pardon  and  peace,  and  forgiveness,  and  joy, 
and  salvation,  and  the  very  music  of  heaven  itself. 
Then  when  you  have  marked  these  verses  red,  take 


170     THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST 

a  little  pair  of  scissors  and  clip  out  every  red  verse. 
Then  you  will  begin  to  understand  how  large  a 
place  the  blood  occupies  in  the  salvation  of  man. 
The  apostle  knew  this,  and  because  he  knew  it,  he 
said :   The  precious  blood  of  Christ ! 

If  you  go  through  the  Old  Testament,  you  will 
find  that  the  way  to  get  back  to  God  is  the  way  of 
sacrifice.  There  it  was  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats, 
but  these  were  not  sufficient.  When  sin  was  too 
great,  and  human  nature  too  weak,  then  Jesus 
■Christ  came  in  the  flesh.  He  lived  and  loved,  and 
suffered  and  died,  and  His  heart  broke.  From 
pierced  hands  and  feet  and  broken  heart  His  blood 
poured  forth,  and  because  of  this  sacrifice,  the 
Apostle  Peter  writes :  The  precious  blood  of  Christ. 
In  the  Old  Testament  there  are  many  figures  that 
are  used  to  make  it  plain.  For  example,  when 
judgment  was  hanging  over  the  homes  in  Israel, 
and  the  first  born  was  about  to  be  slain  in  Egypt, 
then  the  lamb  without  spot  was  sacrificed,  the  blood 
was  collected  in  a  basin,  a  bunch  of  hyssop  was 
dipped  in  the  blood,  and  the  blood  was  sprinkled 
on  the  doorposts,  and  the  word  that  came  to  the  peo- 
ple was :  ^'  When  I  see  the  blood,  I  will  pass  over 
you."  Ptemember  the  lamb  was  to  be  without  blem- 
ish. Jesus  met  this  condition.  The  lamb  was  to 
be  slain.     Jesus  died  that  we  might  live. 

I  allow  no  one  to  go  beyond  me  in  paying  tribute 
to  the  earthly  ministry  of  the  Master,  to  the  mar- 
vellous words  He  spoke,  and  the  great  deeds  He  did. 


THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST     171 

But  I  wish  to  say  that  I  think  I  can  prove  that 
there  is  nothing  said  in  the  New  Testament  about 
our  being  saved  by  His  life.  I  know  there  is  one 
expression  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  which 
might  seem  to  teach  this :  *'  Saved  by  his  life." 
But  literally  this  means — Kept  safe  in  his 
life.  The  message  of  the  Apostle  Paul  here 
was  not  to  the  unsaved,  but  to  the  saved. 
He  is  telling  us  that  when  once  we  have 
accepted  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Saviour,  then  we  have 
him  as  our  environment,  as  our  protector.  His 
arms  are  underneath  us  and  round  about  us.  His 
wings  are  above  us  and  we  are  kept  safe  in  His  life. 
But  God's  Word  teaches  clearly  that  I  am  saved 
not  because  he  lives,  but  because  he  died.  One  of 
the  greatest  preachers  in  England  said  the  other 
day  something  like  this — '^  Some  men  have  a  way 
of  saying  in  these  days  very  much  about  the  works 
of  men  and  very  little  about  the  death  of  Jesus 
Christ.''  But  if  I  should  lose  out  of  my  thinking 
the  death  of  Christ  and  the  shedding  of  His  blood 
and  all  that  it  means,  then  I  should  have  a  wrong 
conception  of  God  and  His  righteousness  and 
justice.  Also  I  should  know  that  there  was  no 
chance  for  me  to  be  saved,  for  if  God  could  look 
upon  sin  and  pass  it  over  without  an  atonement, 
without  something  to  blot  it  out,  I  think  I  should 
lose  my  great  conception  of  God.  I  should  also  lose 
my  joy  as  a  saved  sinner.  But  when  I  realize  that 
He  may  be  just,  and  the  justiiier  of  them  that  be- 


172     THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST 

lieve,  wlien  I  know  that  He  may  hate  sin  while  He 
loves  the  sinner,  when  I  know  that  His  own  Son 
bore  in  His  body  our  sins  upon  the  tree — then  I  can 
sing  and  shout  for  joy,  for  I  know  that  I  am  lifted 
from  despair  into  hope,  from  darkness  into  light, 
from  bondage  into  freedom.  The  Apostle  Peter 
knew  this,  so  we  hear  him  say  —  the  precious  blood 
of  Christ.  How  plain  it  all  is,  prefigured  in  the 
Old  Testament,  perfectly  illustrated  in  the  New, 
Listen  while  I  give  you  some  passages  of  Scripture. 

Jesus  Christ  died,  and  in  dying  he  paid  the  pen- 
alty for  my  sins.  His  death  was,  therefore,  penal. 
Galatians  3:13:  "Christ  hath  redeemed  us  froni 
the  curse  of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us." 
You  remember  the  story  of  Father  Damien.  I  re- 
call when  he  started  away  from  our  country  to  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  to  become  a  leper  and  to  die  as 
a  leper  for  the  sake  of  the  lepers  whom  he  served. 
Yet  this  is  a  poor  illustration  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
came  into  this  world  and  suffered  in  my  stead.  He 
bore  the  shame  of  the  cross.  He  was  made  a  curse 
for  me.  As  by  faith  I  lift  my  eyes  to  Him  and 
take  Him  as  my  Saviour,  I  take  His  place  in  the 
love  and  favor  of  God. 

Listen  again.  It  was  a  voluntary  death. 
John  10:18:  ''No  man  taketh  it  from  me,  but  I 
lay  it  down  of  myself."  I  wish  that  I  could  help 
you  to  see  what  my  salvation  and  yours' cost.  He 
turned  away  from  the  joy  of  heaven  to  the  shame 
of  earth.     He  turned  away  from  the  vast  throngs 


THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST     173 

spying  — Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  to  this  world  where 
they  veiled  his  face  and  smote  him.  He  turned 
away  from  the  immediate  presence  of  the  Father, 
and  came  down  into  this  world  where  men  spat  in 
His  face  and  heaped  shame  upon  Him,  and  even 
placed  the  cross  upon  His  tired  shoulders.  They 
did  even  more  than  this.  They  put  Him  on  the 
cross  and  drove  nails  through  His  hands  and  feet. 
They  lifted  Him  up  between  heaven  and  earth,  as 
if  He  were  unfit  for  earth  and  as  if  they  would 
hold  Him  back  from  Heaven.  He  came  down  to 
earth  to  meet  all  this  and  He  did  it  willingly.  He 
was  ready  to  suffer,  ready  to  die  for  you  and  me. 
To-night,  all  you  need  to  do  to  have  the  bondage  of 
sin  taken  away  and  to  have  sin  cast  behind  God's 
back,  is  just  to  take  Him  as  your  personal  Saviour, 
and  with  His  help  to  turn  away  from  sin. 

It  was  a  substitutionary  death.  In  these  times 
men  seem  to  shrink  from  this  thought.  I  have 
no  harsh  word  for  any  man  who  cannot  accept  my 
theological  position.  I  have  no  harsh  word  for  the 
man  who  cannot  at  first  accept  a  substitutionary 
death  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  let  me  explain  the 
meaning.  It  means  that  He  takes  my  place  and 
offers  up  Himself  for  me.  I  only  know  that  I  find 
this  throughout  the  Word  of  God,  and  it  takes  hold 
of  my  soul  and  grips  me.  II  Corinthians  5:21: 
"  For  He  hath  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us  who 
knew  no  sin."  There  are  some  things  in  this  world 
that  are  so  dreadful  that  we  cannot  think  of  them 


174     THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST 

without  growing  sick.  We  oannot  speak  of  them 
without  suffering.  So  it  is  when  we  think  of  sin 
in  connection  with  Jesus.  Yet  we  are  told  that  He 
was  made  sin  for  us.  When  men  come  to  my  room 
and  tell  me  that  they  are  drunken  and  lecherous, 
that  they  have  secret  sins  and  passions  that  bind 
them,  I  can  only  go  so  far  with  them.  These 
things  I  have  not  experienced,  except  through  my 
sympathy.  Yet  while  my  Saviour  did  not  sin,  He 
was  made  sin  for  us.  When  the  man  who  was  a 
drunkard  comes  to  Him,  or  the  lecherous  man,  or 
the  dishonest  man,  or  the  woman  who  is  weak,  my 
Messed  Redeemer  knows  all  about  their  trouble, 
and  knowing  their  trouble  and  staggering  beneath 
the  weight  of  the  world's  woe.  He  hurries  to  the 
cross  and  dies.  St.  Peter  knew  this  when  he 
said  —  The  precious  blood  of  Christ ! 

Hear  me,  too,  when  I  give  you  this  text  from  the 
Old  Testament.  Leviticus  17:11:  ''For  the  life 
of  the  flesh  is  in  the  blood."  What  does  this  mean  ? 
It  means  that  when  Jesus  Christ  came  into  this 
world  and  lived  and  loved  and  suffered;  when  His 
heart  broke  on  Calvary's  cross  and  the  blood  poured 
from  His  veins,  He  was  laying  down  His  life  for 
you  and  for  me.  Of  course,  if  I  should  lay  down 
my  life  for  you,  it  might  avail  in  a  certain  way, 
but  the  value  of  the  life  determines  the  value  of 
the  blood.  Do  you  not  see  this  ?  I  stand  here  to- 
night preaching  and  I  know  that  there  are  some 
rich  people  here  who  are  nevertheless  very  weak. 


THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST     175 

There  are  some  who  are  high,  in  social  life,  but 
they  have  gone  astray.  Some  are  poor,  too,  and 
they  have  turned  away  from  God.  But  no  matter 
who  you  are,  my  Saviour  is  groaning  upon  Calvary 
and  shedding  His  blood.  He  is  able  to  save  you  all. 
The  Apostle  Peter  knew  this,  and  he  said  —  The 
precious  blood  of  Christ.  I  am  hurrying  to  the 
close  of  my  message  but  I  want  you  to  know  the 
hope  that  is  in  the  blood  of  Christ.  Do  not  resist 
Him,  my  friends.  Do  not  reject  His  precious 
blood. 

My  friend.  Dr.  Geo.  F.  Pentecost,  was  deter- 
mined to  climb  Pike's  Peak  alone.  His  friends 
said  to  him,  "  You  cannot  do  it  without  a  guide 
who  knows  the  way."  But  Dr.  Pentecost  said,  "  I 
know  that  I  can  climb  it  alone."  So  he  started  off. 
They  told  him  that  at  a  certain  curve  in  the  moun- 
tain there  was  a  hut,  open  to  any  traveler,  if  by 
any  chance  he  should  miss  his  way  going  up.  He 
was  getting  along  very  well,  when  suddenly  a  snow- 
storm overtook  him.  Without  warning  the  blinding 
snow  covered  him  and  he  began  to  drift.  He  stag- 
gered and  fell,  and  then  there  came  to  him  the 
warnings  of  his  friends.  He  had  practically  given 
himself  up  to  die,  when  he  realized,  as  he  lay  upon 
the  ground,  that  his  hands  were  touching  some  dry 
twigs.  It  came  to  him  that  if  he  could  start  a  fire 
he  might  still  escape.  He  felt  in  his  pocket  for 
matches,  and  found  one.  But  the  wind  was  blow- 
ing a  perfect  gale.    I  heard  Dr.  Pentecost  say  that 


176     THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST 

he  took  that  single  match  and,  shielding  it  in  his 
hands  from  the  snow,  started  to  strike  it,  but  he 
was  afraid  and  he  put  it  back  into  his  pocket  again. 
Finally,  in  his  desperation,  he  got  up  closer  under 
the  shadow  of  a  rock  and  struck  the  match,  shield- 
ing the  little  flame  as  best  he  could,  and  touching 
it  to  the  dry  twigs.  The  fire  was  started,  and  his 
life  was  saved.  There  was  just  that  one  little  thing 
between  him  and  death.  What  a  blessing  that  he 
did  not  treat  it  carelessly.  To-night  I  am  standing 
here  to  say  that  there  is  just  one  thing  between  you 
and  judgment,  and  that  one  thing  is  the  precious 
blood  of  Christ.  I  beg  you  not  to  treat  it  care- 
lessly. 

But  someone  is  saying, —  You  don't  know  my 
sins.  You  don't  know  my  habits.  If  I  should  start 
this  evening,  my  old  habits  would  come  back  at  my 
heels  like  hounds  scenting  blood.  True,  I  don't 
know  your  habits,  but  I  do  know  my  Saviour. 

Do  you  remember  the  story  in  Scottish  history, 
when  they  were  seeking  to  take  Bruce  the  King? 
They  heard  that  he  was  in  his  palace  and  they 
started  after  him.  The  King  heard  that  they  were 
coming,  and  escaped  with  his  trusted  few.  They 
made  their  way  through  the  fields  and  into  the 
forests,  and  when  they  thought  that  they  had 
escaped,  in  the  distance  Bruce  heard  the  baying  of 
bloodhounds.  They  were  his  own  bloodhounds.  He 
gave  himself  up  for  lost,  but  in  the  distance  he 
heard    the    babbling    sound   of   a    little   mountain 


THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST     177 

stream.  With  his  faithful  followers  he  went  into 
the  stream  and  by  going  up  the  stream  some  dis- 
tance and  across  to  the  other  side,  they  covered 
their  trail.  When  the  hounds  came  to  the  stream, 
so  history  tells  us,  they  lost  the  trail  and  Bruce  was 
saved.  But  I  know  a  story  a  thousand  times  better  ^ 
than  this.  Yes,  I  do.  I  ask  you  to  give  your  hearts 
to  Christ,  and  then  start,  and  the  moment  you  start, 
all  the  old  habits  of  your  life  are  after  you  again ; 
the  old  passions  and  lusts  and  desires.  You  have 
only  half  started  when  you  sink  back  and  say  —  It 
is  hopeless.  But  wait  a  moment.  You  can  cover 
your  trail.  Mr.  Alexander  and  I  landed  one  night, 
four  hours  late,  on  the  Fiji  Islands.  We  were  to 
have  held  services  there.  The  service  had  to  be 
cancelled.  Nevertheless,  we  decided  to  stop,  for  we  .  / 
wanted  to  say  at  least  that  we  had  been  in  the  Fiji 
Islands.  While  we  were  there,  we  heard  in  the  dis- 
tance what  sounded  like  a  cannon.  We  were  told 
that  it  was  calling  the  people  to  the  House  of  God. 
A  man  stood  with  a  mallet  by  a  hollow  log  of  a 
special  kind  of  wood,  and  the  sound  could  be  heard 
for  miles.  We  climbed  up  the  hill  and  found  a 
multitude  of  people  with  black  skins  and  strange 
hair  waiting  for  us.  They  sang  two  songs,  in  which 
Mr.  Alexander  led  them.  One  was  the  "  Glory 
Song,"  and  the  other  was  the  song  which  belongs 
to  our  subject  this  evening.  We  did  not  know  the 
words,  but  we  knew  the  music.  We  have  heard  this 
song  in  every  land  under  the  sun.    We  have  heard 


178     THE  PRECIOUS  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST 

people  sing  it  with  tears  rolling  down  tlieir  cheeks. 
We  have  heard  it  sung  while  multitudes  pressed  up 
to  the  altar  and  sobbed  their  way  into  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  This  is  the  song  they  were  singing  in  the 
Eiji  Islands — 

'*  There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood, 
Drawn  from  Immanuel's  veins/' 

Can  you  not  see  it  ?  Plunge  in !  Plunge  in  !  To- 
night !     To-night !     IsTobody  is  too  sinful ! 

JSTobody  is  too  sinful.  Nobody  is  too  far  away. 
The  precious  blood  of  Christ  can  cleanse  and  save 
unto  the  uttermost.  Nothing  less  than  his  blood 
can  do  this.  ^^  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they 
shall  be  as  white  as  snow.  Though  they  be  red  like 
crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool." 

I  can  say  no  more.  With  all  my  heart  I  wish 
that  I  might.  I  can  only  add  this.  I  love  Him. 
I  love  Him.  He  is  to  me  as  real  as  you  are.  I  lovre 
Him.  I  want  you  to  love  Him.  I  want  you  to 
take  Him.  I  know  that  there  are  people  who  want 
to  say  this  evening  —  "  Pray  for  me."  Lift  up 
your  hand  to  express ,  this  desire  of  your  heart. 


XYI 
A  FORSAKEN  LEADER 

YOU  remember  the  words  tTiat  are  found  in 
II   Timotliy  4 :  10 — ''Demas  hath  for- 
saken me."      They    form    my    text    to 
night  and  my  subject  is:   '^  A  Forsaken  Leader." 

There  are  some  expressions  in  the  Bible  that  are 
so  full  of  pathos  as  to  be  indescribable.  In  the  first 
book  of  the  Bible  you  hear  God  saying  to  a  wander- 
ing child  of  his,  "  Where  art  thou  ?  "  A  little  later 
the  word  is,  "  Where  is  thy  brother  ?  "  Further 
along  you  hear  Jacob  saying,  "Me  ye  have  bereft 
of  my  children.  Joseph  is  not.  Simeon  is  not. 
And  now  ye  will  take  Benjamin  from  me."  You 
remember  what  Moses  said :  ''  Let  the  children  of 
Israel  return,  but  if  not !  "  Mr.  Moody  used  to 
say  that  there  was  the  power  of  a  sob  in  that  un- 
finished sentence.  Then  hear  David,  as  he  stag- 
gers from  between  the  gates,  saying,  "Oh,  Absa- 
lom, my  son,  my  son."  It  is  the  same  in  the  New 
Testament,  as,  for  example,  when  the  Master  says : 
"  Oh,  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  how  often  would  I 
have  gathered  you  even  as  a  hen  gathers  her  chick- 
ens under  her  wing,  and  ye  would  not."  I  say  that 
there  are  expressions  in  the  Bible  that  for  pathos 
have  never  been  equalled. 

This  text  of  mine  is  an  example  of  the  pathos  of 
179 


180  A  FORSAKEN  LEADER 

the  Scripture.  The  Apostle  Paul  is  at  the  end  of 
his  journey.  He  is  weary  and  worn.  He  is  old 
before  his  time.  His  hair  thin,  and  streaked  with 
gray.  His  body  frail,  his  back  bent,  his  heart- 
strings strained  to  the  snapping.  He  is  just  at  the 
time  of  life  when  he  needs  human  sympathy.  It 
was  then  that  he  had  his  experience  with  Demas. 
Writing  his  letter  to  Timothy,  the  last  letter,  in- 
deed, that  he  ever  wrote,  he  slips  in  this  little  sen- 
tence, which  is  a  revelation  of  his  heart :  "  Demas 
hath  forsaken  me."  Very  little  is  said  in  the  New 
Testament  about  Demas.  There  are  only  a  few 
references,  yet  we  know  a  great  deal  about  him.  In 
Colossians  4 :  14,  we  read :  ^^  Luke,  the  beloved 
physician,  and  Demas."  Certainly  he  is  in  excel- 
lent company  here.  We  say  that  a  man  is  known 
by  the  company  he  keeps.  Demas  and  Luke  the 
physician  must  have  had  fellowship  together.  No 
doubt  there  was  something  fine  about  Demas.  Turn 
to  the  Epistle  to  Philemon,  1 :  24,  and  you  read : 
"  Marcus,  Aristarchus,  Demas."  He  is  still  in 
good  company.  Now  look  at  the  text  of  the  after- 
noon :    "  Demas  hath  forsaken  me." 

This  is  all  that  is  said  about  him,  but  it  is 
enough.  They  tell  us  that  a  man  who  is  a  scientist 
can  take  a  single  bone  of  an  animal  and  build  from 
that  bone  the  structure  of  the  whole  animal.  We 
do  not  need  many  verses  about  Demas.  We  do  not 
require  elaborate  description.  These  few  hints  are 
enough.      The  picture  is  something  like  this:     A 


A  FORSAKEN  LEADER  181 

bright,  cheery  young  fellow,  an  attractive  person- 
ality, one  who  would  be  greatly  influenced  by  such 
a  personality  as  that  of  Paul.  When  Demas  heard 
PauFs  message,  it  stirred  him  through  and  through, 
and,  without  counting  the  cost,  he  made  up  his 
mind  that  he  would  follow  this  great  leader. 
Everything  goes  well  for  a  season.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  be  in  the  crowd  and  hear  the  people  ap- 
plauding the  apostle.  To  be  in  such  company  was 
wonderful.  He  did  not  mind  being  stoned  once, 
but  being  stoned  two  or  three  times  was  different. 
It  lost  its  charm.  It  might  be  well  enough  to  be  in 
prison  once,  but  when  the  experience  repeated  itself, 
the  chill  of  the  prison  began  to  be  too  much  for 
him.  Then  it  was  that  the  remembrance  of  the 
world,  its  brightness  and  charm,  came  back  upon 
him,  and  so,  having  loved  this  present  world,  Demas 
turned  his  back  upon  the  apostle.  Just  when  Paul 
needed  him  most,  he  was  not  there  to  comfort  him. 

I  can  imagine  the  apostle  with  tears  in  his  eyes 
and  a  sob  in  his  voice,  as  he  writes  to  Timothy, 
saying :  ^'  Demas  hath  forsaken  me."  I  learn  cer- 
tain lessons.  You  can  easily  remember  them  be- 
cause they  begin  with  the  same  letter. 

The  first  lesson  is  about  the  power  of  person- 
ality. It  is  very  wonderful,  either  for  good  or  for 
evil.  They  say  that  when  E'apoleon  was  at  the  head 
of  his  army,  he  could  dismiss  twenty  thousand  men 
and  retain  the  army's  strength.  Napoleon  was 
worth  twenty  thousand  of  his  men.      That  is  per- 


182  A  FORSAKEN  LEADER 

sonality.  I  heard  a  minister  say  that  he  opened 
his  church  for  Catherine  Booth  to  tell  her  story, 
hut  he  did  so  reluctantly  and  with  prejudice.  But 
when  Catherine  Booth  told  her  story,  with  tears 
rolling  down  her  cheeks,  he  said :  ^^  I  made  up  my 
mind  that  if  Catherine  Booth  wanted  me  to  follow 
her  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  I  would  do  so."  He 
was  a  prominent  minister,  but  he  said  that  he  would 
he  willing  to  go  on  his  hands  and  knees  to  help 
her  in  her  work.  Such  is  the  power  of  a  conse- 
crated personality. 

You  know  what  I  mean  when  I  talk  about  per- 
sonality  working  for  good  or  evil.  There  are  per- 
sons whose  names  I  could  speak  and  it  would  give 
you  a  shiver  to  hear  them.  They  would  make  your 
heart  sink.  If  they  should  come  to  visit  you,  you 
would  almost  backslide.  A  man  came  and  stayed 
with  me  for  three  weeks.  He  had  been  there  two 
weeks  and  we  could  not  have  family  worship.  We 
began  one  morning,  and  I  asked  my  brother,  who 
was  also  visiting  me,  to  pray.  He  whispered  back 
to  me :  "  Bray  yourself."  I  could  not  pray,  and 
nobody  could.  It  was  just  a  personality  let  loose 
in  our  home  that  put  us  all  on  edge. 

There  are  other  personalities  that  make  life 
brighter  and  better.  When  I  lived  in  Winona,  we 
often  had  the  privilege  of  having  Samuel  H.  Had- 
ley  with  us.  You  know  he  was  Jerry  McAuley's 
successor  in  the  Water  'Street  Mission  in  'New  York. 
He  always  came  in  the  summer.     I  remember  how 


A  FORSAKEN  LEADER  183 

we  went  down  to  tlie  station  to  meet  him  and  take 
him  to  the  house  in  the  country.  As  soon  as  word 
got  around,  other  people  would  come  in  to  see  him 
and  the  house  would  he  crowded.  You  could 
scarcely  drive  the  children  to  bed,  nor  could  you 
drive  them  to  play.  They  wanted  to  sit  close  to  him 
and  hear  every  word.  At  those  times  we  always 
had  poor  service  at  the  table,  because  the  servants 
would  forget  to  pass  things.  They  would  start 
around  with  a  plate,  and  then  they  would  stop  and 
listen  to  what  he  was  saying.  He  was  a  perfectly 
wonderful  man.  When  his  visit  closed,  we  would 
follow  him  to  the  door.  The  neighbours  came  out 
and  stood  on  the  porch  to  say  farewell.  Sometimes 
I  would  take  him  to  the  station,  and  other  times  I 
would  give  the  children  the  privilege  of  taking  him. 
We  would  stand,  brushing  away  our  tears  with  one 
hand,  and  waving  our  handkerchiefs  with  the  other, 
and  calling  out  "  Good-bye,  Good-bye.'^  I  can  see 
him  now,  turning  his  great  shining  face  back  and 
shouting,  "  Good-bye.''  Then  we  would  go  back 
into  the  house  and  say :  It  has  been  like  heaven  to 
have  him  here.  We  never  lost  the  influence  of  his 
presence.  Personality  plus  Jesus  Christ.  The 
story  of  the  apostle  Paul  is  like  this.  He  had  won- 
derful power  with  men.  It  was  so  no  doubt  with 
Demas.  Demas  heard  him  speak  one  day,  and 
was  moved  to  follow  him.  He  was  with  him  al- 
most to  the  end,  and  then  he  went  back  to  the 
world.     What  a  pitiful  story  it  is ! 


184  A  FORSAKEN  LEADER 

The  next  thing  I  learn  in  this  story  is  the  privi- 
lege of  fellowship.  Did  you  notice  What  I  read 
a  little  while  ago  in  the  New  Testament  ?  "  Luke 
the  beloved  physician  and  Demas."  Demas  had 
every  opportunity  for  fellowship.  When  Luke 
went  about  with  Paul  the  apostle,  he  must  have 
watched  him  very  carefully  for  he  was  a  physician. 
He  saw  when  his  eyes  were  flashing  and  when  his 
face  was  flushed.  He  noticed  if  his  fingers 
twitched.  He  knew  when  he  could  not  sleep  at 
night.  Now  Demas  was  with  Luke,  and  I  have 
always  thought  that  he  might  have  been  a  kind  of 
nurse  to  the  apostle.  Often,  no  doubt,  he  quieted 
him;  touched  his  hand  tenderly,  or  spoke  softly  to 
him.  Maybe  he  sang  some  hymn  that  the  apostle 
loved.  It  was  a  very  close  fellowship.  So  now 
when  Paul  is  almost  at  the  end,  and  he  looks  for 
Demas,  he  finds  that  he  has  gone.  No  wonder  that 
there  is  a  sob  in  the  sentence  he  writes :  "  Demas 
hath  forsaken  me." 

Demas  had  wonderful  privileges  given  to  him.  I 
should  like  to  make  you  feel  to-day,  if  I  can,  what 
it  means  to  do  little  or  great  things  for  Jesus  Christ. 
Just  a  kind  word,  just  a  clasp  of  the  hand,  just  a 
smile,  just  a  cup  of  cold  water — things  like  these 
mean  fellowship  one  with  the  other  and  with  Him. 
When  we  were  closing  our  first  journey  in  Austra- 
lia, Mr.  Alexander  and  I  came  finally  to  Adelaide, 
in  southern  Australia.  We  had  been  so  long  in 
the  country  that  we  were  known  by  the  people.   The 


A  FORSAKEN  LEADER  185 

Australians  are  such  gracious  and  kindly  people, 
particularly  to  Americans.  By  the  time  we  reached 
Adelaide,  crowds  thronged  us  everywhere.  If  we 
went  on  the  streets,  they  would  gather  around  us 
and  insist  upon  a  service.  One  day  in  Adelaide  I 
was  exceedingly  weary.  It  was  raining,  as  it  only 
can  in  Australia  when  the  rainy  season  is  on.  I 
said  to  Mr.  Alexander :  "  I  will  take  the  service 
first  and  you  the  singing  afterwards."  The  church 
was  crowded,  and  notwithstanding  the  rain,  many 
hundreds  were  standing  outside.  I  finished  my 
part  of  the  service  and  started  away  to  another 
church.  I  was  pushing  my  way  to  a  cab  when  a 
very  plain,  ordinary-looking  man  stopped  me  and 
took  my  hand  and  pulled  me  over  into  a  puddle  of 
water.  A  crowd  began  to  gather  around  us.  I  do 
not  know  whether  I  looked  mad  or  not,  but  I  said : 
"  You  must  not  stop  me.  You  must  not  draw  me 
into  the  water."  I  remember  how  his  face  looked, 
little  bits  of  red  eyes  and  a  little  bit  of  a  worn  cap. 
He  smiled  and  said :  "  Well,  you  must  excuse  me. 
I  only  wanted  to  give  you  some  money."  Then  I 
was  willing  that  he  should  pull  me  into  the  water 
again.  He  added :  "I  want  to  give  the  money  to 
you  to  give  to  Mr.  O^Brien."  Mr.  O'Brien  was  a 
missionary  from  India.  He  had  come  to  Australia 
and  was  preparing  one  of  the  fields  for  our  coming. 
One  day  he  was  walking  on  a  railroad  track  and 
fell  into  a  cattle  pit.  Half  stunned,  he  climbed 
out,  when  a  train  came  along  and  ran  over  one  of 


186  A  FORSAKEN  LEADER 

his  hands.  Thej  took  him  to  the  hospital,  and  the 
Australian  people  were  sending  him  money.  The 
old  man  wanted  to  give  a  present  to  him.  I  thought 
it  might  be  a  pound,  that  is,  five  dollars.  I  said: 
"  Come  around  to-morrow  morning  and  I  will 
take  the  money."  When  he  came,  he  laid  down  a 
check  for  one  hundred  pounds,  that  is,  five  hundred 
dollars.  "  Oh,"  I  said,  "  are  you  going  to  give  so 
much  as  that  ?  Then  you  must  take  it  to  the  hos- 
pital, and  we  will  go  with  you."  So  we  got  into 
a  cab  and  started  for  the  hospital.  On  the  way  I 
asked  him  about  his  occupation.  He  said :  "  I  am 
a  station  man."  I  thought  he  meant  a  railroad  sta- 
tion man,  but  he  explained :  ^^  I  live  on  a  great 
ranch."  I  said :  "  How  large  ?  Five  hundred 
acres  ?  "  He  began  to  smile,  and  said :  ^^  Well,  sir, 
it  is  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres.  I  have 
two  hundred  thousand  sheep  grazing  on  it,  and 
there  is  a  railroad  forty  miles  long  on  my  place." 
Then  I  was  not  sorry  that  he  was  giving  one  hun- 
dred pounds.  When  we  reached  the  hospital,  a 
nurse  took  us  to  the  room,  and  there,  lying  on  a 
cot,  was  the  missionary.  His  arm  was  bandaged 
and  his  eyes  shut.  The  nurse  said :  "  Dr.  Chap- 
man and  Mr.  Alexander  are  here."  He  opened  his 
eyes  quickly  and  smiled  his  welcome.  I  said: 
"  Yes,  we  have  brought  you  a  friend  who  wants  to 
give  you  one  hundred  pounds."  "  Did  you  say  one 
hundred  pounds  ?  "  he  inquired.  I  have  never  seen 
anything  like  his  face  in  my  life.     His  eyes  filled 


A  FORSAKEN  LEADER  187 

with  tears.  I  said :  "  Yes,  one  hundred  pounds." 
^^  Oh,"  he  said,  "  all  last  night,  when  I  could  not 
sleep,  I  was  praying  for  one  hundred  pounds.  I 
want  to  send  to  India  for  my  wife  and  children." 
And  I  turned  to  the  farmer  and  said :  ^^  Mr.  Mac- 
Bride,  give  him  the  money."  He  laid  the  check 
upon  the  bandaged  hand  of  the  missionary,  who 
said :  "  Thank  you,  sir."  Then  the  old  farmer 
turned  and  threw  his  arms  around  me  and  said: 
"  Is  this  Christian  work  ?  "  I  said :  "  Yes,  this  is 
Christian  work."  "  Very  well,  then,"  he  said,  "  I 
know  what  a  thrill  means.  I  have  it  in  my  heart 
now.  I  shall  give  my  life  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  my 
station,  and  my  all  to  Him."  We  went  back  three 
years  later,  and  found  that  he  had  kept  his  word. 
He  had  sold  his  great  ranch  and  was  giving  away 
his  money  by  the  thousands.  Only  yesterday  a  let- 
ter came  from  Australia  saying  that  he  was  still 
doing  it.  If  I  could  only  help  you  to  understand 
what  it  means  to  have  fellowship  together  in  doing 
good.  It  was  work  like  this  that  Demas  turned  his 
back  upon. 

Another  lesson  to  be  learned  is  the  pathos  of  a 
forsaken  leader.  I  can  see  the  apostle  with  tears 
in  his  eyes,  for  he  was  very  human.  Demas  had 
gone.  It  is  a  picture  to  make  one's  heart  sad.  But 
I  know  something  sadder  even  than  this.  I  know 
of  another  Forsaken  Leader.  You  know  whom  I 
mean.  Who  is  forsaking  Him?  There  is  some 
church  member  here  who  used  to  serve  Him  faith- 


188  A  FORSAKEN  LEADER 

fullj.  Your  heart  would  thrill  as  you  did  His 
work.  Maybe  you  were  a  Slinday  School  teacher, 
.^  or  a  soul  winner.  Alas !  the  world  came  in  between 
^  you  and  Jesus.  The  fascination  and  glamour  of  it 
blinded  you  as  it  did  Demas  of  old.  You  are  here 
to-day  and  you  have  no  peace.  You  have  forsaken 
your  leader. 

Who  is  forsaking  Him  ?     Some  church  officer,  it 

""H  may  be.  There  was  a  time  when  you  served  the 
elements  which  represent  the  broken  body  and  the 
shed  blood  of  Christ.  To-day  your  name  may  be 
on  the  church  roll,  but  you  have  no  peace.  I  was 
preaching  in  a  university  town  for  ^Ye  or  six  days. 
There  were  crowds  in  the  church,  but  there  was  no 
blessing.  I  said  to  the  minister :  "  You  must  let 
me  go."  "  Wait  until  to-morrow,"  he  said.  When 
the  morrow  came  I  was  preaching  in  an  afternoon 
service.  I  had  lifted  my  hands  to  pronounce  the 
benediction,  and  the  minister  came  down  the  aisle 
with  a  judge  at  his  side.  The  minister  lifted  his 
hand,  and  I  dropped  mine.     The  judge  at  his  side 

^.^was  the  chief  usher  of  the  church,  but  his  life  was 
wrong.  When  he  walked  down  the  aisle,  people 
would  whisper  "hypocrite."  The  minister  had 
gone  to  him  in  the  meeting  and  said :  "  Judge,  if 
the  things  that  they  say  are  true,  I  want  to  help 
you.  If  they  are  untrue,  I  will  defend  you."  And 
the  judge  replied :  "  Everything  they  say  is  true. 
I  am  a  broken-hearted  man."  The  whole  congre- 
gation was  sobered  when  he  came  walking  down  the 


A  FORSAKEN  LEADER  189 

aisle  with  the  minister  to  take  my  hand.  They 
knelt  together  at  the  altar.  Presently  the  judge 
arose,  and,  lifting  his  hands  before  the  congrega- 
tion, he  said :  "  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  used  to 
be  an  elder  in  the  church.  I  was  superintendent 
of  the  Sunday  School.  I  had  a  family  altar,  but 
for  years  I  have  denied  the  Lord  that  bought  me. 
I  have  gotten  right  with  my  minister.  I  want  to 
get  right  with  you.  I  hope  you  will  forgive  me." 
There  was  no  benediction  pronounced.  The  people 
passed  by  and  took  his  hand.  That  night,  when  I 
finished  my  sermon  and  made  my  appeal,  the  first  ^  y 
man  to  come  was  the  judge,  and  he  did  not  come 
alone.  He  had  his  arm  around  a  young  fellow  who 
was  a  drunkard.  He  had  come  back  to  his  For- 
saken Leader,  and  he  had  brought  another  with 
him. 

Who  has  forsaken  Him?  Is  it  some  minister?'  . 
There  was  a  time  when  you  preached  Jesus  Christ 
and  Him  crucified.  To-day  you  think  you  have 
another  gospel  to  preach.  I  never  mean  to  say 
sharp  things  to  men  who  do  not  agree  with  me. 
I  think  there  is  only  one  thing  for  a  minister  to  do. 
When  he  comes  to  the  place  where  he  believes  the 
Bible  is  not  the  Word  of  God,  and  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  not  very  God  of  very  God,  I  think  he  should  ' 
resign.  He  should  leave  his  pulpit.  He  ought  not 
to  accept  a  salary  for  preaching  the  gospel  and  yet 
not  preach  the  Gospel.  H  there  is  a  minister  here 
to-day  who  used  to  preach  with  a  burning  heart 


190  A  FORSAKEN  LEADER 

and  shining  face  in  the  olden  days,  but  who  has 
forsaken  his  Leader  and  lost  the  power  of  His  pres- 
ence, all  I  say  to  you  to-day  is  this — ^Hear  Him 
calling  you  to  come  back.  Come  back  to  your  For- 
saken Leader. 

I  hurry  to  the  close,  but  I  want  you  to  notice 
one  thing  more.  I  have  spoken  of  the  power  of 
personality,  the  privilege  of  fellowship,  and  the 
pathos  of  a  Forsaken  Leader.  J^ow  think  for  a 
moment  of  the  prostitution  of  a  privilege.  Demas 
might  have  gone  on  to  glory.  He  might  have  stood 
with  Paul  at  the  end,  and  all  the  generations  would 
have  honoured  him.  It  would  have  been  a  wonder- 
ful thing  to  have  stood  with  the  apostle  and  served 
him  to  the  last.  He  missed  a  great  privilege.  Of 
course,  it  was  not  easy,  but  who  wants  an  easy 
time?  Do  you?  I  do  not.  One  reason  why  we 
fail  as  Christians  is  that  we  are  losing  the  heroic 
element.  Our  work  is  too  easy.  There  is  not  enough 
of  a  fight.  There  is  a  friend  of  Mr.  Alexander  who 
is  a  blacksmith.  His  name  is  Tom  Sexton.  Tom 
was  soundly  converted.  He  does  not  know  the  first 
principles  of  the  English  language.  He  can  hardly 
speak  three  sentences  correctly.  Sam  Jones  sent 
for  him  to  speak  in  his  tabernacle,  and  he  said  that 
he  looked  like  a  man  who  had  swallowed  a  water- 
melon. He  introduced  him  like  this :  "  Brothers 
and  sisters,  here  is  Brother  Tom  Sexton.  First  time 
I  have  seen  him.  He  is  not  a  very  likely  looking 
preacher,  but  they  say  he  can  preach.    I  will  turn 


A  FORSAKEN  LEADER  191 

him  loose."  Tom  preached  on  Paul  and  Silas.  He 
described  how  they  had  been  beaten  with  stripes, 
and  how  they  had  been  cast  into  prison.  After  they 
had  been  in  the  cell  a  little  while,  Paul  turned  to 
Silas  and  said :  "  Let's  sing."  And  Silas  said : 
"  Well,  you  sing  if  you  want  to.  That  last  lick  I 
got  took  all  the  sing  out  of  me."  And  Paul  said: 
"  Well,  we  might  as  well  sing,  anyway.  Let  us 
sing  something."  And  Silas  answered :  "  Sing  if 
you  please,  but  I  will  do  no  singing."  So  Tom 
Sexton  said  that  Paul  began  to  sing.  He  was 
wrong  in  his  chronology,  of  course,  but  he  wa» 
perfectly  right  in  principle.  He  said  that  Paul 
sang: 

* '  Must  Jesus  bear  the  cross  alone, 
And  all  the  world  go  free? 
No,  there's  a  cross  for  everyone, 
And  there's  a  cross  for  me." 

He  said  that  is  what  he  sang.  Whether  Paul 
sang  that  or  not,  we  have  all  got  to  sing  it  if  we 
want  to  be  true.  Who  wants  an  easy  time  ?  Isn't 
it  worth  while  to  do  hard  things  for  Jesus  ?  How 
fine  it  would  have  been  if  Demas  had  bared  his 
own  back  to  the  smiters ;  if  he  had  even  given  him- 
self to  be  beheaded,  and  then  had  swept  through 
the  gates  into  the  City ! 

Oh,  it  would  have  been  wonderful  if  he  could 
have  followed  Paul  into  the  presence  of  the  Master ! 
We  were  in  Bendigo,  Australia,  and  at  the  close  of 
an  afternoon's  service  our  chairman  came  to  me 


192  A  FORSAKEN  LEADER 

and  said :  "  You  and  Mr.  Alexander  must  go  and 
make  a  call."  I  had  been  preaching  six  times  a 
day,  and  I  said :  "  I  cannot  go."  "  Well,"  said 
the  chairman,  "jou  must  go  anyway."  So  we 
got  into  an  automobile  and  started  across  the  town. 
After  a  while  we  came  to  a  little  vine-clad  cottage. 
It  was  in  the  height  of  summer,  and  the  flowers 
were  indescribably  beautiful.  We  had  come  to  a 
minister's  house.  He  had  once  made  a  moral  slip, 
but  God  had  taken  him  back,  and  he  had  stood  in 
the  streets  singing  and  preaching.  It  was  Mother's 
Day.  Here  we  use  a  little  white  flower.  There  they 
use  a  blossom  that  is  peculiar  to  Australia,  the 
wattle  blossom.  The  old  minister's  wife  went 
ahead,  and  the  minister  was  lying  on  his  couch 
with  a  little  piece  of  wattle  on  his  garment.  "  Hus- 
band," she  said,  "  here  are  Dr.  Chapman  and  Mr. 
Alexander."  Instantly  his  eyes  opened.  Mr. 
Alexander  reached  him  first  and  took  his  hand  and 
said :  "  Can  you  sing  ?  "  "  Oh,"  he  said,  "  I  wish 
you  could  have  heard  me  sing  when  I  was  at  my 
best."  "  Well,"  said  Mr.  Alexander,  "  let  us  sing 
the  Glory  Song."  I  have  heard  the  Glory  Song 
sung  in  Melbourne  with  fifteen  thousand  people 
and  a  choir  of  thousands  lifting  it  to  the  skies,  and 
I  wondered  if  heaven's  music  could  be  half  so 
sweet.  But  I  never  heard  anything  to  equal  the 
singing  of  that  old  man — 

"  Oh,  that  will  be  glory  for  me." 


A  FORSAKEN  LEADER  193 

He  sank  back  on  his  coiicli  and  I  took  his  hand  and 
said :  "  Well,  this  is  the  end,  and  it  is  all  well  with 
you."  I  think  I  can  remember  what  he  said. 
Horatio  Bonar  wrote  the  words : 

**  On  the  jasper  threshold  standing, 
Like  a  pilgrim  safely  landing, 
See  the  strange  bright  scenes  expanding, 
This  is  Heaven  at  last." 

The  old  man  was  still  a  moment,  and  then  he  half 
rose,  with  his  arms  stretched  out : 

'*  Christ  Himself  the  living  splendour, 
Christ,  the  sunlight  mild  and  tender, 
Praises  to  the  Lamb  I'll  render, 
This  is  Heaven  at  last" 


XVII 
THE  PRODIGAL 

WE  are  looking  toniglit  at  one  of  the 
finest  parts  of  the  New  Testament 
Scripture.  I  except,  of  course,  those 
portions  that  refer  directly  to  Jesus.  I  put  them 
aside  by  themselves.  They  are  incomparable.  But 
I  say  again  that  my  text  is  taken  from  one  of  the 
finest  parts  of  the  'New  Testament.  It  is  in  that 
old  familiar  chapter,  Luke  15,  and  is  a  part  of  the 
stories  which  our  Lord  spoke  in  answer  to  censure. 
They  said :  "  This  man  receiveth  sinners  and 
eateth  with  them."  Then  he  turned  to  them  with 
infinite  patience  and  kindness  and  began  to  speak. 
It  is  a  part  of  one  of  his  stories  that  gives  me  my 
text.  Luke  15 :  14 — "  And  he  began  to  be  in 
want." 

I  have  often  said  that  I  thought  that  this  expres- 
sion hardly  describes  the  boy  who  was  away  in  sin. 
>  I  have  said  that  I  thought  possibly  it  ought  to  read 
^  like  this :  He  began  to  appreciate  his  want.  He 
began  to  understand  how  far  he  had  wandered. 
When  a  short  time  ago  there  was  placed  in  my 
hands  a  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into 
modem  English,  made  by  Dr.  Moffatt,  of  Oxford, 
I  turned  to  this  passage  and  read  my  text  in  these 

words :    "  And  he  began  to  feel  in  want."     So  I 

194 


THE  PRODIGAL  195 

saw  that  I  had  had  the  right  idea  all  along.  I  know 
that  this  boy  who  grieved  his  father  and  hurt  his 
mother  did  not  first  begin  to  be  in  want  out  there 
in  the  land  of  sin.  It  was  back  there  in  his  father's 
house  that  he  began  to  be  in  want.  He  was  restless 
under  parental  restraint.  He  was  indifferent  to  I' 
home  influences.  He  was  grieving  his  mother  and 
making  his  father's  heart  ache.  He  was  in  want 
even  then.  While  he  would  not  have  said  it  with 
his  lips,  yet  down  in  his  heart  he  said  it — "  With 
all  my  heart  I  wish  I  were  true."  His  fatal  mis- 
take was  that  he  did  not  speak  it.  He  did  not  fol- 
low his  better  instinct.  If  I  could  help  you  young 
men  and  older  men  to  speak  out  what  is  in  your 
hearts,  I  might  save  you  from  many  tears  and  heart- 
aches. I  might  save  you  from  a  ruined  character. 
Suppose  the  boy  had  slipped  away  to  his  mother's 
side  and  told  her  of  his  unrest,  or  suppose  he  had 
walked  in  the  fields  with  his  father  and  had  un- 
burdened his  soul. 

Some  time  ago  an  unscrupulous  politician  in  this 
state  influenced  a  banker  to  permit  him  to  over- 
draw his  account.  It  was  a  time  of  great  excite- 
ment politically,  and  the  deed  was  done  under  the 
pressure  of  the  time.  In  order  to  save  himself,  the 
officer  of  the  bank  began  to  manipulate  the  funds  j^' 
of  the  bank.  But  the  overdraft  was  not  made  good. 
Then  the  bank  examiner  came,  and  the  moment  he 
entered  the  bank  the  officer  knew  that  disgrace  was 
awaiting  him.    He  slipped  quietly  out  of  the  bank, 


196  THE  PRODIGAL 

went  to  his  home  and  to  his  room  and  locked  the 
door.  Just  before  he  drew  the  trigger  he  wrote  his 
wife  this  letter :  "  Mj  dear,  I  have  had  an  aching 
heart  ever  since  I  committed  the  first  wrong. 
There  have  been  nights  when  I  could  not  sleep. 
There  have  been  days  when  I  thought  I  would  die." 
Then  he  said  two  things :  "  If  I  had  only  told  you, 
and  if  someone  had  only  spoken  to  me."  If  I  could 
persuade  you,  knowing  that  your  heart  is  not  right, 
to  speak  to  somebody,  it  might  help  you  to  find  God. 
It  might  help  you  to  be  right  with  God.  I  do  not 
covet  your  confession,  but  I  do  covet  your  confi- 
dence. If  you  could  speak  out  the  thing  that  is 
ruining  your  life,  I  feel  that  it  would  help  you.  It 
is  when  we  first  begin  to  be  in  want  that  we  should 
turn  to  the  Saviour. 

Of  course,  this  boy  was  a  prodigal  long  before 
he  ever  left  his  father's  house.  Sin  is  not  merely 
an  act.  Sin  is  a  state.  You  do  not  need  to  act  sin 
out  to  be  a  sinner.  Just  have  a  rebellious  spirit,  a 
mind  at  enmity  with  God.  Just  allow  some  sin  to 
drop  into  your  heart  and  stay  there  without  sincere 
and  honest  repentance.  This  is  enough.  In  his 
home  the  boy  was  a  prodigal.  So  one  day  the  sin 
that  was  in  his  heart  bore  fruit  on  his  lips,  and  he 
said :  "  Father,  give  me  the  portion  of  goods  that 
falls  to  me."  A  little  further  on  you  read  this: 
"And  not  many  days  after  he  gathered  all  to- 
gether." There  was  a  lapse  of  time  between  his 
getting  his  goods  and  his  leaving  home,    l^o  doubt 


THE  PRODIGAL  197 

he  was  just  a  boy  like  some  of  you  here  this  even- 
ing, and  I  think  I  know  what  he  did  in  the  interval. 
He  must  have  gone  to  visit  some  of  the  places  dear 
to  his  boyhood.  I  think  I  can  hear  him  saying  to 
himself :  "  I  have  half  a  mind  not  to  go."  I  can 
see  him  following  his  father  around  at  his  work. 
And  when  the  father  turned  to  him  and  said,  "  My 
son,  I  wish  you  would  not  go,"  the  boy  almost 
decided  to  stay  at  home. 

The  son  of  one  of  my  friends  in  Chicago  said  to 
him  one  day ;  ^^  Father,  I  am  going  to  leave  home. 
I  am  tired  of  it  all.  Your  restraints  and  mother's 
piety  are  driving  me  away."  The  morning  came 
when  he  was  to  leave.  His  father  heard  him  tip- 
toeing down  the  stairs  an  hour  before  the  time  he 
usually  arose.  He  went  to  the  door,  and,  throwing 
it  open,  called  out :  "  Charlie,  come  in."  When 
the  boy  entered  the  room  of  his  father  and  mother, 
the  old  gentleman  walked  towards  him,  put  his  arm 
around  his  shoulder,  and  said  :  "  Your  mother  and 
I  have  not  slept  all  night.  We  think  there  must  be 
something  wrong  in  our  lives,  and  before  you  go 
we  want  you  to  forgive  us."  The  boy,  whose  name 
everybody  in  this  house  knows,  looked  at  his  father's 
tears  and  his  own  began  to  flow.  "  Father,"  he 
said,  "  the  trouble  is  not  with  you  and  mother,  the 
trouble  is  with  me."  Down  on  their  knees  together 
they  went,  the  mother  on  one  side  of  the  boy  and 
the  father  on  the  other  side.  When  they  arose,  the 
boy  started  the  Christian  life.     So  I  think  it  may 


// 


198  THE  PRODIGAL 

be  tliat  the  father  of  the  prodigal  said  to  him: 
"  My  son,  I  wish  you  would  not  go.'* 

But  the  day  came  for  his  departure.  I  know  that 
I  am  drawing  upon  my  imagination,  but  why  did 
God  give  us  this  power  if  we  are  not  to  use  it? 
Where  is  there  a  book  that  stirs  the  imagination 
like  this  Book?  So  I  have  always  thought  that 
when  the  boy  started  his  mother  must  have  gone 
with  him.  She  walked  a  little  way,  and  then  she 
said :  "  My  son,  I  cannot  go  farther."  Then  her 
arms  went  around  him  and  her  face  was  against 
his,  and  she  whispered :  "  Oh,  my  boy,  don't  go  1  " 
And  I  can  almost  hear  the  boy  saying,  choking  back 
his  sobs :  ^'  I  believe  I  will  not  go."  But  suddenly 
he  pulls  himself  together  and  breaks  away  from  his 
mother's  arms,  and  starts  on  the  way.  Oh,  that  was 
his  great  mistake.  To  resist  the  pleading  of  those 
that  loved  him !  When  I  stood  here  the  first  night 
pleading  with  you  to  come  to  Christ,  and  you  did 
not  come,  that  is  where  you  made  your  mistake. 

I  can  see  the  boy  going  on  up  the  hill,  until  he 
reaches  the  top,  and  then  he  looks  back.  He  can 
see  his  mother's  smile,  although  he  cannot  hear  her 
voice.  He  sees  her  beckoning  hand,  and  he  says  to 
himself:  "I  believe  I  will  go  back."  But  he 
turned  away.  Last  night  when  I  stood  pleading 
here,  and  one  of  you  young  men  back  yonder  half 
\  arose  and  then  sank  back,  it  was  just  like  the 
prodigal.  So  he  went  down  the  other  side  of  the 
hill  and  around  the  curve  in  the  road  until  he  came 


THE  PRODIGAL  199 

to  the  last  place  where  he  could  see  the  old  home 
and  the  sweet  old  mother  standing  on  the  road. 
Now  he  cannot  even  see  her  smile  or  her  tears,  but 
he  sees  her  beckoning,  and  he  hesitates  and  turns 
half  round.  But  once  more  he  turned  back.  "  Oh, 
well,"  I  hear  him  say,  "  I  will  go  on  a  little  way." 
That  was  his  fatal  mistake.  I  am  speaking  to  you 
slowly  and  tenderly.  I  am  asking  you,  with  all  the 
pathos  of  voice  that  God  gives  me  to  use,  not  to  re- 
sist Him.  To-day  if  you  will  hear  His  voice, 
harden  not  your  heart.     Harden  not  your  heart ! 

Oh,  it  was  fine  to  be  free  on  the  open  road.  ISTo 
father's  restraint,  no  home  influence.  Free!  But 
of  course  it  does  not  last  long.  I  was  walking  down 
the  streets  of  Paris  one  evening,  and  I  saw  some 
blazing  lights  just  above  the  walk  on  which  I  was 
treading.  I  do  not  know  French,  so  I  said  to  a 
friend  who  understood  the  language :  "  What  does 
it  say  ?  "  There  was  a  great  stream  of  young  peo- 
ple passing  under  the  sign,  and  I  wanted  to  know 
about  it.  My  friend  translated  it— ^^  ]\^thing  to 
pay."  We  stood  where  we  could  see  through  the 
swinging  doors,  and  from  behind  the  doors  we 
heard  entrancing  music.  Then  we  heard  the  loud 
voices  of  drunken  women  and  the  oaths  of  intoxi- 
cated men.  There  was  the  sound,  too,  of  policemen 
taking  drunken  people  out.  jN'othing  to  pay !  My 
God !  Everything  to  pay !  Loss  of  manhood,  sacri- 
fice of  womanhood,  ruin  of  soul !  The  boy  thought 
that  it  was  all  well  with  him.    Then  comes  the  text : 


200  THE  PRODIGAL 

"  He  began  to  be  in  want."  Tbere  was  a  migbty 
famine  in  the  land.  At  first  it  seemed  well  enough 
with  him.  Everybody  applauded  him.  He  was 
well  dressed.  The  first  thrill  of  passion  was  upon 
him.  The  glamour  of  sin  was  about  him.  It  was 
all  well  with  him  as  long  as  his  goods  lasted.  Then 
the  famine  came,  No  friends,  no  resources.  This 
is  the  sad  thing  about  sin — ^that  it  brings  men  to 
want.  Some  of  you  have  been  listening  to  my 
pleading  night  after  night,  and  I  have  not  seen  you 
turn  to  Christ.  I  have  preached  with  earnestness, 
even  with  tears,  yet  some  of  you  are  holding  back. 
This  may  be  your  last  call.  Who  can  tell?  The 
ministers  have  been  pleading.  Friends  have  been 
praying.  Mothers  have  been  crying  out  to  God. 
If  you  do  not  know  that  you  are  in  want,  let  me 
assure  you  that  you  are.  Sin  always  makes  a 
mighty  famine,  but  it  isn't  too  late  to  turn  back  to 
the  Father's  house. 

A  friend  of  mine  stepped  into  a  'New  York  Cen- 
tral train  in  Albany,  and  there  was  only  one  vacant 
seat  in  the  day  coach.  He  sat  down  beside  another 
man.  The  man  proved  to  be  an  interesting  talker. 
He  had  been  reading  a  letter,  he  told  my  friend: 
"  This  letter  is  from  my  mother."  "  Oh,"  said  my 
friend.  "  Yes,  it  is  from  my  mother,"  he  went  on. 
"  I  don't  know  whether  you  are  a  Christian  or  not, 
but  this  letter  made  me  a  Christian."  So  my  friend 
said  to  him :  "  Would  you  mind  letting  me  see  the 
letter  ?    I  would  like  to  see  a  letter  that  would  make 


THE  PRODIGAL  201 

a  man  a  Christian."  So  tlie  man  passed  it  to  him 
and  said :  "  Before  you  read  it,  let  me  tell  you  it 
was  not  any  single  sentence  that  she  wrote  that 
made  me  a  Christian.  But  I  want  you  to  notice , 
how  she  signed  her  name,  and  how  crooked  the  lines 
are,  *  Lovingly,  Mother.'  My  mother  is  an  old 
woman.  She  is  the  last  of  the  family.  She  has 
prayed  over  me  ever  since  my  birth.  When  I  saw 
that  signature,  I  said,  '  If  she  should  die  before  I 
am  saved !'  And  just  before  you  came  into  the  car 
I  dropped  my  head  in  my  hands  and  accepted  the 
Saviour.''  What  if  your  mother  should  die.  What 
if  your  wife  should  die,  and  you  are  not  saved. 
God  pity  you! 

He  went  and  joined  himself  to  a  citizen  of  that 
country  and  he  sent  him  into  his  fields  to  feed  the 
swine.  There  is  an  old  story  often  used  by  minis- 
ters, which  tells  of  a  king  who  said  to  one  of  his 
subjects :  "  Make  me  a  chain."  So  he  made  a  chain 
for  the  king  with  just  a  few  links,  and  the  king 
said ;  "  Double  it,"  and  he  doubled  it.  Then  the 
king  said :  ''  Double  it  again,"  and  he  doubled  it 
again.  Once  more  the  king  said,  "  Double  it,"  and 
he  doubled  it  again.  And  when  the  servant  came 
back  with  the  chain  trailing  at  his  heels,  the  king 
said  to  the  other  servants :  ^^  Bind  him  hand  and 
foot."  It  is  only  a  fanciful  tale,  but  it  tells  the 
truth.  Not  holding  to  the  truth,  not  yielding  to 
parental  restraint,  sinning  against  your  father's 
honour,  trampling  underneath  your  mother's  love, 


202  THE  PRODIGAL 

telling  the  first  obscene  story,  looking  at  the  first 
vulgar  picture,  hiding  some  special  sin,  taking 
money  that  is  not  your  own,  lifting  the  cup  to  your 
lips !  At  length  you  are  in  a  meeting  like  this  and 
you  hear  me  pleading,  pleading,  pleading,  and  you 
half  rise  up  and  then  you  sink  back  and  say :  "  My 
God !    My  God !     I  am  in  bondage. '^ 

Henry  Clay  Trumbull  tells  in  one  of  his  books 
the  old  story  of  an  animal  trainer  in  London,  who 
came  out  on  the  stage  before  a  great  audience  with 
a  number  of  lions  about  him.  There  was  one  espe- 
cially, a  Numidian  lion,  that  attracted  attention. 
He  spoke  to  it  and  it  cowered  at  his  feet  like  a 
frightened  dog.  There  was  a  Bengal  tiger  too. 
The  trainer  cracked  his  whip  and  the  tiger  ran  like 
a  cat.  Finally,  they  brought  in  a  great  serpent,  and 
the  trainer  stood  while  round  and  round  his  body 
the  serpent  wrapped  itself.  At  length  the  serpent's 
head  was  at  the  man's  neck.  When  the  trainer 
speaks  of  course  the  serpent  will  unwind.  He 
speaks  and  waits.  Something  is  wrong.  Those  who 
are  close  to  him  notice  that  his  face  is  beginning  to 
whiten.  Presently  there  is  a  sound  of  bones  crack- 
ing; in  a  moment  he  dropped  dead.  He  had  bought 
that  little  serpent  when  it  was  eighteen  inches  long. 
He  could  have  killed  it  with  the  pressure  of  his 
fingers.  But  it  killed  him  with  its  mighty  power. 
I  do  not  know  any  other  name  to  give  to  sin.  I  do 
not  know  anything  hateful  enough  to  say  about  sin. 
It  is  a  serpent  and  it  will  crush  you.     T  am  afraid 


THE  PRODIGAL  203 

to  let  this  meeting  close  unless  you  are  saved. 
Come,  friends,  come!  There  is  a  way  of  escape. 
It  is  blood-marked.  It  is  by  way  of  the  Christ  on 
Calvary.  What  a  wonderful  Saviour  we  have! 
Come! 

I  can  see  the  boy  coming  home.  Not  as  he  went 
out.  Dogs  snarl  at  him.  Men  shout  at  him.  Chil- 
dren cast  stones  at  him.  There  is  this  about  com- 
ing home.  You  have  to  go  back  as  far  as  you  went 
away.  This  is  what  repentance  means.  But  there 
is  this  fine  thing  about  coming  back.  When  you 
went  away,  you  walked  alone.  When  you  come 
back,  you  walk  every  step  of  the  way  with  Him. 
He  says :  ^'  1  will  never  leave  you.  I  will  never 
forsake  you.'^  The  prodigal's  father  saw  him  and 
took  him  in  his  arms.  The  boy  was  in  rags,  but 
his  father  kissed  him  and  put  a  robe  about  him  and 
gave  him  shoes  to  wear,  and  took  him  home.  ITow 
once  more,  I  look  at  the  scene  with  my  imagination. 
I  have  always  thought  that  when  the  boy  got  inside 
the  house  (tradition  says  that  while  he  was  away 
his  mother  died)  he  must  have  looked  all  about 
him.  Do  you  remember  the  day  of  your  mother's 
funeral?  Do  you  remember  the  afternoon  you 
came  back  after  leaving  your  boy  in  the  grave  ?  Do 
y©u  recall  that  when  you  came  back  to  the  house  it 
seemed  barer  than  ever.  Your  voice  had  a  kind  of 
an  echo.  There  was  a  deathly  chill  in  the  house. 
So  I  can  see  the  boy  come  in  and  look  around,  and 
then  I  can  hear  him  say  with  a  sob:  "Father, 


204  THE  PRODIGAL 

where  is  mother  ?  "  Ah,  that  is  the  tragedy  of  sin. 
Sin  makes  great  differences  in  life.  We  cannot  for- 
get, but  God  both  forgives  and  forgets.  To-night 
He  is  calling,  calling! 

A  Salvation  Army  vs^oman  was  going  along  the 
streets  of  one  of  the  cities  of  Canada,  and  she 
noticed  a  certain  house  and  knew  that  there  was 
something  wrong.  She  rapped  at  the  door  and 
there  was  no  answer.  There  was  no  fire  in  the 
stove,  and  there  was  a  chill  about  the  place.  She 
walked  through  the  rooms  and  came  to  a  bedroom, 
a  very  little  room,  and  there  on  the  bed  she  saw  an 
unconscious  woman.  Quickly  she  started  the  fire 
and  made  some  broth  and  pressed  it  to  the  cold  lips. 
Soon  a  touch  of  color  came,  and  the  eyes  opened. 
As  she  bent  down  she  heard  the  woman  saying: 
"  Thank  you.  I  never  thought  I  would  come  to 
life  again.  My  boy  went  away  and  left  me.  I  have 
had  nothing  to  eat.  I  was  starving."  When  she 
got  a  little  more  strength,  she  said :  "  They  say  he 
was  a  drunkard,  but  he  always  loved  his  mother. 
He  used  to  come  in  drunk  at  night,  but  he  would 
never  go  to  sleep  until  he  had  patted  my  face  and 
smoothed  my  hair.  He  used  to  say ;  ^  Mother,  sing 
to  me.'  I  would  sing,  and  often  he  would  come  out 
of  his  drunken  stupor.  If  he  were  only  here  I 
know  I  could  speak  to  him  and  he  would  answer." 

The  Salvation  Army  woman  ran  away  to  Police 
Headquarters,  and  came  back  with  a  phonograph. 
She  put  it  on  a  table  by  the  woman's  bedside,  and 


THE  PRODIGAL  205 

put  the  receiver  close  to  her  mouth,  and  said  to  her ; 
"  Now,  speak."  And  this  is  what  she  said :  "  My 
precious  boy,  your  old  mother  has  been  very  sick 
since  you  went  away.  Her  hair  is  whiter.  Her 
hands  are  thinner.  Her  voice  is  weaker.  But,  oh, 
my  boy,  if  you  would  only  come  back,  I  would  take 
you  in  my  arms  and  kiss  you  and  sing  to  you." 
With  that  she  dropped  on  the  pillow  and  was  gone. 
They  took  the  record  out  to  the  mountain  and  sent 
it  out  among  the  miners,  for  they  knew  that  her 
boy  was  there.  One  day  a  Salvation  Army  worker, 
who  had  discovered  the  boy,  said  to  him :  "  If  you 
will  come  with  me  I  will  let  you  hear  a  special 
record."  He  set  it  going  and  went  out  of  the  room. 
The  boy  dropped  on  his  knees,  and  when  the  phono- 
graph stopped  he  rushed  out  of  the  room  and  cried : 
"  Come  back.  That  is  my  mother's  voice.  Start  it 
again."  So  the  phonograph  was  started  again,  and 
the  worker  states  that  later  when  he  came  back  into 
the  room,  he  found  the  boy  on  his  knees  with  his 
face  buried  in  his  arms,  sobbing  as  if  his  heart 
would  break.  "  Mother,  mother,"  he  was  crying, 
"  I  am  going  home.  I  am  going  home."  Sweeter 
than  any  mother's  voice  is  the  voice  of  Jesus,  say- 
ing to-night :  "  Come  back  I     Come  back !  " 


XVIII 
GOING  HOME 

THE  subject  of  my  sermon  is  "  Going 
Home/'  Perhaps  it  might  be  better  to 
call  it  an  interrupted  confession.  I  am 
speaking  again  about  the  Prodigal  Son,  but  now  I 
wish  to  emphasize  his  going  home.  The  text  is  in 
Luke  15 :  22 — "  But  the  father  said  to  his  servants, 
Bring  forth  the  best  robe  and  put  it  on  him,  and 
put  a  ring  on  his  hand  and  shoes  on  his  feet." 

Can  you  imagine  yourself  for  a  moment  at  the 
boy's  side,  when,  broken-hearted,  he  determined  to 
go  back  to  his  father's  house  ?  He  has  even  made 
up  his  mind  what  he  will  say.  "  I  will  say,  oh, 
father,  I  have  sinned  against  heaven  and  in  thy 
sight,  and  I  am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy 
son.  Make  me  as  one  of  thy  hired  servants."  But 
he  never  said  all  that.  Open  your  New  Testament 
and  see  where  the  father  interrupted  him.  The 
prodigal  is  almost  home,  and  looking  up  he  sees  his 
father  coming  out  to  meet  him.  His  father  is  al- 
most too  far  away  to  hear,  but  the  boy  starts  in 
with  his  confession,  anyway.  "  I  have  sinned 
against  Heaven,  father.  I  have  sinned  against 
Heaven,  and  in  thy  sight,  and  am  no  more  worthy 
to  be  called  thy  son."  And  just  there  his  father 
interrupted  hm.     The  father  said  to  his  servants: 

206 


GOING  HOME  207 

"  Bring  fortli  quickly  the  best  robe  and  put  it  on 
him  and  put  a  ring  on  his  hand  and  shoes  on  his 
feet."  Just  the  moment  the  boy  confessed  himself 
wrong,  that  moment  his  father  gives  him  the  kiss, 
sends  for  the  ring,  bids  them  bring  the  robe,  and 
starts  back  with  his  long-lost  son  to  the  desolated 
home.  I  can  imagine  how  the  heart  of  the  father, 
as  well  as  the  heart  of  the  boy,  must  have  over- 
flowed with  joy. 

I  bring  you  this  message  this  evening,  because 
some  of  you  here  must  start  home  to-night.  I  was 
standing  one  day  in  the  prison  in  Joliet,  Illinois.  I 
was  an  invited  guest  to  see  the  institution,  and  as 
I  was  standing  there  a  messenger  came  from  the 
warden  and  asked  me  to  preach  on  the  following 
Sunday.  I  said  that  I  would  do  so,  and  the  mes- 
senger started  away.  In  a  moment  he  returned, 
and  said :  "  By  the  way,  the  warden  told  me  to 
say  to  you,  sir,  that  if  you  could  come  next  'Sunday, 
he  requests  you  not  to  preach  on  the  prodigal  son." 
And  then  he  added,  with  a  smile :  ^^  We  have  had 
twenty-four  ministers,  by  actual  count,  and  every 
single  one  of  them  has  preached  on  the  prodigal. 
Those  poor  fellows,  who  can't  go  out  of  church 
when  they  don't  like  the  preacher,  have  had  as  much 
prodigal  as  they  can  stand.  So  don't  tell  the  story 
of  the  prodigal  son."  I  was  younger  in  my  minis- 
terial experience  then,  and  sp  I  said  to  him :  "  Very 
well.  Tell  the  warden  that  I  shall  choose  another 
theme."     But  I  have  often  thought  that  it  was  a 


208  GOING  HOME 

mistake.  ^Nearly  always  when  I  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  speak  in  prison  I  turn  instinctively  to  this 
picture. 

What  a  marvellous  picture  it  is.  Indeed,  the  whole 
picture  is  wonderful.  You  see  the  lost  sheep  and 
the  shepherd  searching,  the  lost  piece  of  money 
and  the  woman  seeking,  and,  finally,  the  lost  boy 
and  the  father  waiting.  It  is  all  a  beautiful  picture 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  his  matchless  love,  and  of  God, 
the  Father,  in  His  never-ending  mercy.  And  one 
of  the  finest  touches  about  it  all  is  this  interrupted 
confession.  Just  as  the  son  had  confessed  that  he 
was  not  worthy  to  be  called  his  father's  son,  and 
was  on  the  point  of  asking  to  be  made  one  of  his 
hired  servants,  just  there  the  father  burst  in  with  a 
command  to  his  servants — "  Bring  forth  the  best 
robe  and  put  it  on  him,  and  put  a  ring  on  his  hand, 
and  shoes  on  his  feet."  That  is  a  revelation  of  the 
fa  therms  heart.  I  must  remind  you  once  more  that  the 
boy's  sufferings  really  began  before  he  left  home. 
He  had  never  acknowledged  with  his  lips,  but  out 
in  the  land  of  sin  he  had  more  sorrow  and  pain  than 
his  heart  could  hold.  The  sad  thing  about  it, 
though,  was  that  he  did  not  realize  in  his  wander- 
ings that  he  was  hurting  others  even  while  he  was 
hurting  himself.  If  I  could  help  you  all  to  under- 
stand this,  every  father  here  would  be  a  Christian, 
and  every  mother  would  turn  her  face  towards 
Christ.  You  resist  Jesus  Christ  as  a  father,  and 
you  give  your  boy  a  handicap  in  the  race  of  life. 


GOING  HOME  209 

You  turn  away  from  Christ  as  a  mother,  and  your 
daughter  has  a  barrier  over  which  she  can  hardly 
pass.  I  went  one  day,  years  ago,  in  the  northern 
part  of  New  York,  to  ask  a  boy  to  join  the  church. 
His  answer  was :  ^^  I  shall  do  so  when  my  father 
joins."  Then  I  went  to  the  father,  a  great  paper 
manufacturer,  and  I  said  to  him :  "  Mr.  So  and  So, 
I  have  just  asked  Dan  to  be  a  Christian."  "  Well, 
what  did  he  say  ? "  He  said  that  he  would  do  so 
when  you  took  your  stand.  Instantly  he  dropped 
his  pen  and  turned  to  me  and  said :  "  If  I  am  a 
barrier  in  my  boy's  way,  I  shall  meet  you  at  tbe 
church  this  evening."  We  help  or  hinder  one 
another. 

Every  boy  in  this  building  whose  life  is  wrong 
strikes  a  blow  at  his  father.  Every  boy  or  girl  who 
is  living  a  prodigal  life  strikes  a  blow  at  the  mother. 
Sam  Jones  told  me  a  story  the  last  time  I  saw  him 
that  I  have  never  forgotten.  "  An  old,  gray-haired 
man  in  my  town,"  said  the  evangelist,  "  sat  waiting 
in  his  room  till  the  clock  struck  one.  His  two  boys 
came  staggering  home  into  his  presence.  He  rose 
with  a  white  face  and,  with  eyes 'that  could  not  shed 
tears,  walked  to  his  desk,  opened  a  drawer  and  took 
out  two  revolvers.  Then  he  turned  to  his  boys,  who 
were  trembling  in  their  sin,  and  said :  '  Boys,  I 
have  a  request  to  make  of  you.  I  want  one  of  you 
to  take  this  revolver  and  the  other  the  other  one, 
and  I  want  you  both  to  climb  the  stairway  to  your 
mother's  room  and  I  want  you  to  kill  your  mother 


210  GOING  HOME 

instantly.'  They  were  sobered  in  a  moment. 
*  Why,  father !'  they  said.  Then  the  old  man's 
tears  came  like  rain  as  he  said  to  his  boys,  in  a 
hoarse  whisper :  ^  Ten  thousand  times  better  than 
that  you  should  kill  her  by  inches.  She  has  been 
'  crying  all  night  since  you  went  away.  She  has  suf- 
fered beyond  human  description.'  "  Somehow  when 
we  sin  we  seem  to  forget  that  we  are  hurting  others 
as  well  as  ourselves. 
.^  This  boy  was  unmindful  of  the  end.  In  his  prod- 
igal life  everything  was  going  out  and  nothing  com- 
ing in.  You  are  making  a  terrible  mstake,  one  that 
will  last  on  into  eternity,  if  you  fail  to  lay  hold 
upon  that  whch  is  spiritual.  If  you  are  trained 
mentally,  and  not  spiritually,  if  you  are  trained 
physically  and  not  spiritually,  when  the  crisis  of 
life  comes  you  will  have  no  power  to  resist  evil. 
Everything  going  out  and  nothing  coming  in.  This 
.  boy  seemed  to  forget,  too,  that  his  life  was  a  revolt. 
This  is  what  sin  is.  Everyone  who  is  away  from 
Jesus  Christ  is  at  enmity  with  God. 

A  gentleman  wrote  to  me  this  week,  asking  a 
question :  "  What  constitutes  a  Christian  ?  "  I 
replied :  "  The  personal  acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  a  Saviour,  and  a  sincere  surrender  of  one's  will 
to  God."  I  believe  that  this  constitutes  a  Christian 
in  the  first  stages  of  Christian  living.  I  stand  here 
to  say  that  unless  you  lay  hold  on  Jesus  Christ, 
unless  you  take  God's  plan  for  your  life,  and  live  it 
out,  when  the  crisis  comes  there  will  be  no  help. 


GOING  HOME  211 

Temptation  will  be  too  strong.  Doubt  will  be  too 
severe.  I  said  in  a  speech  one  evening  that  a  man 
may  be  worth  a  million,  but  if  he  has  no  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ,  and  his  baby  should  die,  all  his  for- 
tune would  profit  him  nothing.  I  saw  a  man  rise 
hurriedly  from  the  audience  and  walk  quickly  out 
of  the  door.  Two  or  three  days  later  I  met  him, 
and  he  said:  "I  am  the  man  to  whom  you  spoke 
that  night.  I  have  a  million  and  more,  and  I  have 
a  little  baby  boy.  When  you  said  that,  I  made  my 
way  from  the  church  to  my  house  and  to  the  boy's  ^ 
nursery  and  knelt  down  by  his  crib  and  I  saidii/ 
^  Oh,  God,  if  this  little  boy  should  die,  it  would 
kill  me.  All  the  money  I  have  in  the  bank  would 
not  keep  my  heart  from  breaking.  With  my  face 
buried  in  my  hands  I  took  your  Saviour.'  "  This  is 
w^hat  I  want  you  to  do  this  evening.  I  do  not  know 
how  I  can  present  additional  argument.  For  four 
long  weeks  I  have  stood  on  this  platform  pleading 
with  men  and  women  to  come  to  Christ.  I  have 
tried  to  lift  up  Jesus  Christ  and  present  Him  as 
the  only  Saviour.  If  you  will  but  turn  your  eyes 
toward  Him,  you  can  be  delivered  from  sin.  You 
can  be  set  free  from  bondage.  To-night  I  plead 
with  you  to  come. 

The  other  day  in  Brooklyn  a  prominent  minister 
was  called  to  conduct  a  funeral  service.  The 
funeral  was  in  one  of  Brooklyn's  most  magnificent 
homes.  The  daughter  of  a  multi-millionaire  had 
died.     When  the  minister  entered  he  spoke  to  the 


212  GOING  HOME 

fatter  and  motlier  and  then  to  the  son,  who  was 
plainly  intoxicated.  Later,  when  he  arose  to  read 
the  burial  service,  suddenly  the  old  man,  the  gray- 
haired  millionaire,  pushed  his  way  past  him,  took 
hold  of  the  side  of  the  casket,  dropped  his  head, 
and  was  heard  to  be  whispering :  "  Daughter  dead, 
son  disgraced,  billiards,  society,  the  club,  bank  all 
week,  club  every  evening,  automobile  all  day  Sun- 
day, money,  wine,  cards,  no  Christ,  no  family  wor- 
ship, no  Bible,  no  hope !  "  The  old  man  stood  for 
a  moment  staggering  as  if  he  would  fall,  then  he 
dropped  his  head  in  his  arms,  this  man  of  millions, 
and  cried  as  if  his  heart  would  break.  Something 
like  this  must  have  come  to  the  boy  there  in  the 
land  of  sin.  Everything  had  been  going  out  and 
nothing  coming  in.  Then  it  was  that  he  said  to 
himself :  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father.'* 
When  the  father  heard  him  confessing  his  sin  he 
interrupted  him  with  these  words :  '^  Bring  forth 
the  best  robe  and  put  it  on  him,  and  put  a  ring  on 
his  hand,  and  shoes  on  his  feet.'*  Oh,  the  wonder- 
ful love  of  the  Father !  Oh,  the  pardoning  grace  of 
Jesus  Christ! 

I  need  to  say  but  two  or  three  things  to  you.  The 
prodigal  came  to  himself.  That  is,  he  began  to 
think.  Mr.  Alexander  told  me  that  when  he  walked 
down  one  of  these  aisles  last  night  one  of  your  promi- 
nent citizens  said :  "  Mr.  Alexander,  I  am  going 
to  do  this.''  And  Mr.  Alexander  said  to  hinit' 
"  When  ?  "    ^^  I  am  going  to  do  it  before  your  meet- 


GOING  HOME  213 

ings  close,"  was  the  reply.  A  week  ago  to-day  a 
gentleman  whom  we  all  knew  was  singing  in  the 
choir.  To-night  he  is  gone.  There  is  in  this  audi- 
ence a  young  man  brought  here  by  one  of  his 
friends,  bound  with  a  passion  for  drink,  struggling 
with  all  his  might  to  be  free,  but  he  has  failed 
again  and  again  and  again.  If  I  could  only  help 
him  to  come  to  himself  to-night.  When  the  sinner 
comes  to  himself,  he  sees  his  sin  in  a  new  light.  We 
are  almost  at  the  close  of  the  meetings.  I  do  not 
know  that  I  shall  ever  lose  out  of  my  mind  the 
impression  of  your  faces.  To-morrow  may  be 
eternity.  I  say  when  a  man  comes  to  himself  he 
understands  the  real  facts  of  sin.  He  knows  what 
a  terrible  master  it  is  and  what  poor  wages  it  pays. 
When  the  prodigal  came  to  himself  he  said: 
"  How  many  hired  servants  of  my  father  have 
bread  enough  and  to  spare.'^  There  is  a  fine  touch 
there  that  I  do  not  want  you  to  miss.  The  prodigal 
was  out  there  among  the  swine,  feeding  upon  the 
husks,  and  suddenly  there  came  to  him  a  vision  of  |, 
his  home.  It  must  have  been  a  good  home.  Other- 
wise the  memory  of  it  would  not  have  come  to  him 
in  that  way.  I  want  to  ask  you  fathers  and 
mothers,  what  kind  of  a  home  are  you  giving  to 
your  children?  What  kind  of  an  atmosphere  are 
you  making  for  them  ?  If  I  should  go  back  through 
this  crowd  this  evening  and  find  your  boy  and  speak 
to  him,  would  your  life  as  a  father  or  a  mother 
help  me  to  win  him  to  Christ  ?    Stop  a  moment  and 


214  GOING  HOME 

think  about  this.  What  kind  of  influences  are  you 
fathers  and  mothers  throwing  about  your  children  ? 
You  who  are  prominent  business  men,  what  kind 
of  an  example  are  you  setting  to  the  younger  people 
of  your  city  ?  You  are  hesitating  to  rise  and  walk 
down  one  of  these  aisles,  and  take  your  stand  for 
Christ.  You  have  been  saying  to  yourself:  I  will 
go  into  the  church,  but  I  will  not  walk  down  the 
aisle.  If  one  of  you  strong  successful  men  should 
come  down  here  and  take  my  hand,  some  boy  yon- 
-  der,  it  might  be  your  own  boy,  would  be  profoundly 
moved.  Is  it  not  worth  while  for  a  strong  man  to 
set  a  good  example  before  a  boy  or  girl?  The 
prodigal  had  a  vision  of  his  home,  and  he  said :  "  I 
will  arise,"  and  he  was  back  home  even  before  he 
started.  All  you  need  to  say  is:  I  will.  I  like 
people  to  sob  their  way  into  the  kingdom.  I  like 
to  hear  people  shouting.  I  like  the  method  of  the 
Salvation  Army,  the  penitent  form.  We  have  a 
way  of  being  too  easy  about  going  into  the  king- 
dom. We  enter  in  too  gentle  a  fashion.  It  might 
be  well  if  some  would  come  with  a  shout.  Then  I 
like  also  the  quiet  way  that  many  have  of  coming 
to  Christ. 

In  one  of  the  churches  of  Philadelphia  a  great 
manufacturer  sat  listening  to  a  sermon  by  his  min- 
ister. Suddenly  he  folded  his  arms  and  dropped 
his  head  and  said  to  himself:  "I  will  settle  it 
here."  When  he  had  an  opportunity  he  said  to  one 
of  the  officers :     "  When  will   the  church   officers 


GOING  HOME  215 

meet?"  "To-day,"  was  the  answer.  "Then  1 
will  go  and  meet  them."  Taking  his  place  before 
the  officers,  he  said :  "  I  have  for  years  had  an  in- 
tellectual perception  of  Jesus,  but  this  morning  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  I  owed  it  to  Him  and  to 
myself  to  announce  my  faith,  and  I  now  accept 
Jesus  as  my  Saviour."  One  of  the  officers  said: 
"  I  move  that  we  receive  him  at  once."  As  quietly 
as  a  June  day  is  born  he  came  into  the  kingdom.  I 
like  these  little  inquirer's  cards  that  we  use  at  the 
meetings.  A  man  may  take  his  pen  in  his  hand 
and  put  down  his  name  and  thus  sign  away  a  mil- 
lion dollars.  So  a  man  may  take  this  little  card 
and  sign  his  name  and  settle  the  question  for 
eternity.  But  hear  me,  whether  you  sob  at  an  altar, 
or  sit  quietly  in  the  conference  room,  or  hold  your 
pen  in  your  hand  and  write  on  a  card, — You  can 
never  be  saved  until  you  say:   I  Will. 

When  he  came  to  his  father  to  confess  his  sin,  the 
father  interrupted  him  in  the  midst  of  his  confes- 
sion. I  think  this  is  fine.  So  many  men  have  said 
to  me :  What  about  my  past  sins  ?  What  about  my 
failures  in  past  years?  The  moment  you  come  to 
God  through  Jesus  Christ  and  accept  His  Son  as 
your  Saviour,  God  will  be  satisfied  and  you  will 
be  justified.  Do  you  know  what  justification 
means?  You  see  these  white  pages  in  the  little 
book  in  my  hand.  JSTow  do  you  know  what  justifi- 
cation means  ?  It  means  this :  That  when  by  faith 
you  accept  Jesus  Christ  and  turn  from  your  sins, 


216  GOING  HOME 

God,  for  Christ's  sake,  receives  you  and  you  are 
justified  every  whit,  ind  in  the  sight  of  God  your 
life  is  as  clean  and  white  as  the  pages  of  this  book. 
If  I  could  only  get  you  started  to  Christ.  If  I 
could  only  bring  you  to  say:  I  will.  I  am  per- 
fectly willing  to  make  you  cry  if  only  you  can  be 
made  ready  to  decide.  I  heard  General  Booth  say 
once  that  a  man  was  never  at  his  best  imtil  he 
either  laughed  or  cried.  If  I  could  start  your  tears 
and  move  your  wills,  and  hear  you  say:  ^^  God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner,''  I  would  gladly  do  it. 

I  know  a  doctor  who  was  coming  up  one  day  on 
the  Southern  Railway  from  Atlanta.  On  the  train 
he  noticed  a  man  who  was  very  nervous.  He  would 
put  on  his  overcoat  and  take  up  his  travelling  bag 
and  walk  up  the  aisle,  and  presently  he  would  drop 
into  his  seat  again.  My  friend  said  to  him: 
"  What  is  the  matter  with  you  ?  "  "  Oh,"  he  re- 
plied, "  I  have  been  in  Atlanta  and  I  am  going 
home.  I  went  down  a  blind  man.  I  have  been  in 
the  care  of  a  physician.  He  operated  on  my  eyes 
and  I  can  see.  Do  you  know  I  have  lived  on  this 
railway  all  my  life  and  I  have  never  seen  these 
towns  before  ?  "  They  passed  another  town  and  he 
rushed  to  the  window  to  see  it.  He  went  on  talk- 
ing :  "I  expect  my  wife  and  children  to  meet  me 
at  the  second  station  from  this.  I  have  never  seen 
theln  before,  but  I  can  see  them  now."  When  the 
train  reached  the  station,  the  man  with  one  spring 
was  down  the  steps  and  rushing  through  the  crowd. 


OOING  HOME  217 

My  friend  saw  hiin  catch  his  wife  in  his  arms.  She 
kissed  his  open  eyes  again  and  again.  His  children 
clung  to  the  skirts  of  his  coat.  The  train  started 
to  move,  and  as  my  friend  sprang  hack  on  the  steps, 
he  heard  the  man  say :  "  Griory,  glory,  I  can  see, 
I  can  see !  "  As  the  train  pulled  out  he  could  still 
hear  the  words :  "I  can  see,  I  can  see."  I  would  give 
anything  in  the  world  to-night  if  I  could  put  those'- 
words  on  your  lips.  It  would  be  a  wonderful  ex- 
perience if  you  could  cry  out  to-night:  I  can  see, 
I  can  see. 

Did  you  ever  notice  what  the  father  did?  He 
kissed  him.  He  did  not  wait  until  he  was  cleaned 
up.  Sometimes  a  man  says:  I  am  going  hack 
home,  and  I  am  going  to  quit  this  or  that  bad  habit. 
You  are  starting  wrong.  Come  first.  Come  right 
away.    I  like  this  old  hymn : 

**  Just  as  I  am  without  one  plea, 

But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me.*' 

Just  as  you  are,  come.     And  the  father  said: 
"  Bring  the  best  robe.*'     Then  he  put  the  robe  on 
him  from  his  head  to  his  heels,  and  the  robe  covered  » 
the  marks  of  his  wanderings.     And  then  he  said: 
"  Put  a  ring  on  his  hand  and  shoes  on  his  feet." 
The  ring  stands  for  reconciliation  with  the  father.  "-' 
The  father  puts  a  ring  on  the  prodigal's  hand  and 
shoes  on  his  feet.     He  is  a  slave  no  longer.    He  is  «^ 
a  son.     He  is  fit  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  his 
father.    Listen  to  me.    I  bid  you  come.    Come  t 


218  GOING  HOME 

The  other  day  a  cashier  in  a  bank  in  'New  York 
was  sentenced  to  Sing  Sing  for  ten  years.  He  had 
begun  to  go  wrong  some  years  before.  Many  times 
he  had  been  asked  to  accept  Jesus  Christ  as  his 
Saviour,  but  he  had  spurned  Him.  And  now  the 
tide  of  the  world  was  against  him.  When  he  came 
up  for  trial  they  told  the  judge  about  his  wife  and 
daughter.  His  friends  said  to  him :  ^^  Deal  with 
him  as  kindly  as  you  can."  So  he  was  sent  up  for 
ten  years  only.  His  little  girl  came  home  from 
school  and  said :  ^^  Mother,  I  am  never  going  back 
to  school.  I  heard  a  girl  say  that  my  father  is  a 
thief."  Next  morning  she  was  too  ill  to  rise.  The 
next  day  she  was  in  a  fever,  and  the  next  day  she  was 
hovering  between  life  and  death.  The  Governor  of 
the  State  sent  a  message  to  the  prison :  ''  Send  that 
man  back  to  be  with  his  daughter  over  night." 
When  he  reached  the  house,  he  went  up  into  the 
room  tip-toe,  for  she  was  sleeping.  The  sound  of  his 
sobs  awoke  her,  and  smiling  up  at  him  she  said: 
"  I  knew  you  would  come  back.  Put  your  face 
down  on  my  pillow  as  you  used  to  do,  and,  father, 
kiss  me."  And  the  father  put  his  lips  against  his 
child's  face  and  kissed  her  just  as  she  went  home. 
The  doctor  said  she  died  of  a  broken  heart.  The 
man  never  knew  when  he  started  to  sin  and  spumed 
his  Saviour,  he  never  knew  that  he  was  going  to 
kill  his  child.  You  never  can  tell  how  far  sin  will 
reach.  You  cannot  tell  when  you  say  "  no "  to 
Christ,  how  far  your  decision  will  reach.     It  is  a 


GOING  HOME  210 

blow  to  those  wlio  love  you,  but  I  will  tell  you  some- 
thing more.  When  you  resist  my  Saviour,  it  is  a 
blow  to  Him.  The  Bible  says  that  rejecting  Christ 
is  crucifying  Him  afresh.  Every  refusal  is  like 
driving  the  nails  through  His  hands  and  feet.  Take 
Him  then  to-night.  Come,  my  friends,  and  take 
Him  to-night.  I  have  finished  my  message. 
Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet  they  shall  be  as 
white  as  snow! 


■K^_ 


3^,2^ 


Date  Due 


